1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
297 
much interest, who read papers and hear addresses, 
with some degree of attention. Surely here we 
may look for the fullest approval in every scientific 
movement, and in any educational movement 5 here 
at last, in place of ridicule and contempt, we shall 
find warm encouragement and assistance. How 
far these anticipations are realized, those w T ho have 
had occasion to present such subjects, can testify. 
With the farmers constituting a majority in most 
of our legislatures, projects for educational estab¬ 
lishments having their interest in view, are suffered 
to lie neglected, or even despised, year after year, 
while money is at the same time voted away by 
thousands through the votes of these same farmers, 
for comparatively trifling objects with which they 
have little or nothing to do. This evil is gradually 
lessening, but yet strong manifestations of it may 
be seen in almost every capital of state, during 
each legislative, session. Can any one doubt, that 
the farmers when once convinced that money can 
be appropriated with benefit to the cause of agri¬ 
culture, will hesitate to appropriate it so far as is 
necessary? Can any one doubt, but that if they 
were fully and really convinced, they would do it 
now , freely and not grudgingly? So far is this from 
true that even in three States where appropriations 
have been made, it has been amid doubts, fears and 
opposition. 
The conclusion forced upon the mind by such rea¬ 
soning, and such facts, as the foregoing, is, that 
the majority of the farmers in our States are not 
yet prepared to advance very rapidly, and are not 
sufficiently imbued with a spirit of improvement. 
Many of them are, as I have said, disposed to the 
vague belief that some improvement is needed, but 
they are inclined to rest in the expression of this 
belief. They are not ready to take'active measures 
to bring this knowledge into practical forms, and 
within their reach, or to aid in its increase. They 
shrink from actual innovations, although theoretic¬ 
ally they may be brought to acknowledge them 
possibly advisable. In short, what the mass of far¬ 
mers call a conviction , as to the merits of scientific 
agriculture, is merely a somewhat favorable pre¬ 
possession ; if they were really convinced that there 
was much to be learned from it, they w 7 ould not be 
so foolish as to neglect decisive and prompt mea¬ 
sures for bringing a knowledge of it within their 
reach. In such a case men of science w r ould not 
be, as it were, compelled to produce the results of 
their labors and to apply them to practice, in a sort 
of apologetic way, as if for meddling with what 
they did not understand; but they w r ould be sought 
after and encouraged, and urged forward in every 
possible way. 
It is strange that, after all which has been al¬ 
ready done, such a spirit does not show itself more 
strongly; while, too, the advantages from the ap¬ 
plication of chemistry, or of the other sciences, to 
practice is so extremely capable of proof. 
Suppose, for instance, a farmer entering upon a 
new soil, of which he knows nothing, either in re¬ 
spect to its composition, or its physical properties. 
He wishes to grow wheat upon it, that being per¬ 
haps the best crop he can raise, if it will do well. 
His only w 7 ay of decidiug this question is by actual 
experiment ; for there are some soils that look per¬ 
fectly well to the eye, and yet will not grow good 
wheat. If the crop fails, his labor is all lost, and 
a year of his life has gone also. To this it may 
be answered, that manure is all that is needed, 
and that any farmer knows it already, without 
thanks to the chemist. This is true to a certain 
extent, but in many cases experience has shown 
that common manure will not produce good wheat, 
even when heavily applied to the land. Here then 
occurs the necessity for chemical analysis; by its 
means we are enabled to ascertain what are the 
substances, what are the proportions of the sub¬ 
stances, that are contained in this grain; so much 
being done, it then remains to examine the soil 
also, and to ascertain of what this too is composed. 
If- there are several substances present in the 
wheat, which are not present, or only present in 
small quantity in the soil, the wdiole subject becomes 
clear at once, and the great principles are establish¬ 
ed, by means of which such immense advances 
have been made in modern times; the principles of 
special manuring, that is, of supplying special de¬ 
ficiencies by additions of particular substances, 
which common manures cannot furnish in sufficient 
quantities. 
We may also suppose a case, where the farmer 
cannot obtain enough of common yard manure for 
the extent of ground which he wishes to crop with 
wheat. Knowing the composition of the grain, 
he can look about for something which will answer 
for its food; though here again he is helpless to a 
considerable extent without the labors of the chem¬ 
ist, to tell him w’hether manures or substances that 
he has never seen before, are really what he w 7 ants. 
Can any reasonable man deny that chemistry is val 
uable in each of these cases; cannot all, on the con¬ 
trary, see that if the researches of the chemist had 
been much more extended, had been carried so far 
as to explain every change which takes place from 
germination to entire ripeness, and all of the differ¬ 
ences in the varieties of this grain, that a fund of 
knowledge would have been collected of the very 
greatest importance to every practical man. 
In my next letter I propose to write somewhat 
more at length relative to the necessity of such ex¬ 
tended investigations as the one alluded to above, 
and as to the way in which they can be encouraged. 
Yours truly, John P. Norton. 
Of Plows and Plowing. 
Editors of The Cultivator —In the Cultivator 
for March last, there are some ideas of mine upon 
“ Plows and Plowing.” I there mentioned that, 
with such plows as I had used, I had not been able 
to turn stubble land in a manner that seemed to me 
to be the most desirable, nor to plow' so deep a 
furrow in green-swmrd land as I wished ; that I had 
stated my difficulties to Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse, 
Mason & Co., and that they were getting up some 
new 7 patterns of plow's with the intention of obviat¬ 
ing my difficulties. These gentlemen have now 
completed three sizes of a new plow 7 for green-sw 7 ard, 
and tw 7 o sizes for stubble land, one of the largest 
of each sizes of w 7 hich I have tested thoroughly, 
and I am now happy to be able to say that they meet 
my wants entirely. 
The mould board of the stubble plow 7 is of a con¬ 
siderably shorter constructiou, and is .wider at the 
heel in proportion to its length, than that of any 
good sod plow; and this gives it great turning pow er, 
enabling it to take up its loose furrow-slice, throw 
it all over to the desired place, completely invert¬ 
ing as w 7 ell as pulverising it, and leaving a clean 
channel behind for the reception of the next furrow. 
The castings, both of the mould-board and land-side, 
are considerably higher than is usual in plows, 
which prevents stones and clods of earth from fall ¬ 
ing over and down betw 7 een them, and thus aiding 
to fill up the furrow channel. The beam, im¬ 
mediately forw 7 ard of the standard-bolt of the cast- 
