1853 . 
THE CULTIVATOR 
175 
the weeds. I advise not to hill potatoes in dry 
ground. 
6. Dig early; it may not be quite so early as 
you do common field crops', but before they are 
injured by wet, dark, and damp weather, lie- 
member that a seedling potato the first year, sets 
and matures its tubers mostly after regular field 
crops have got their growth. Seedlings dug some¬ 
what early will not be so large, but they will be 
much more healthful than when dug later. 
Late dug seedlings are often a little diseased, 
not from constitutional weakness, but by a law 
applicable to all tropicals when grown in unpropi- 
tious weather. 
7. In the fall dig each hill alone. Having dug a 
plot, go oyer it once and again, most deliberately, 
throwing out every hill that seems weak, ill-sha¬ 
ped, yellow Jleshed , or spreads widely in the 
ground , or is small and immature . 
A seedling well cultivated the first year, and 
yet making small tubers, will never afterwards ri¬ 
pen in season. 
Save each hill separately, that is, put such good 
hills as can readily be separated, together, to the 
amount of three or four. Put these separate par¬ 
cels in dry sand in a barrel, putting strips of shin¬ 
gle between the parcels, in this way store the 
whole. Throw away the small tubers of even 
your good hills: they would be more trouble than 
profit. 
9. Some of your good sorts will be tolerably 
enable when two seasons old, others will require 
from three to four years growth, just as in the 
case of many fruits. 
10. Good seed yields a very variable proportion 
of plants. In my experience it has varied from 
one-fifth to four-fifths of the seed sowed. 
' 11. Potatoes cultivated in this manner will 
mostly gain an eatable size the first year, C E. 
G. Utica, 1853. —«»— 
Contributions of Science to Agriculture. , 
BY SAMI’EL w. JOHNSON. 
The actual contributions of science to agricul¬ 
ture, are not so numerous as might be judged, from 
its applications to other arts. Most of the pro¬ 
cesses of improved farming, though belonging to 
the science of agriculture, and capable of explana¬ 
tion by it, originated with practical and not pro¬ 
fessedly scientific men. Yet all practical processes 
are scientific, so fyr as founded on truth, and many 
of them were discovered by the same methods that 
are used by the philosopher in arriving at new 
facts and principles. 
Plowing, spading, manuring, draining, irriga¬ 
tion, have been in use, in a more or less perfect 
manner, from the earliest times. 
If we may credit the reports of travelers, or if 
we admit the adequate support of their dense po¬ 
pulation, the Chinese are to this day unexcelled 
in the perfection of their husbandry. It is certain 
that they have attained great excellence in ma¬ 
ny arts, as the manufactures of porcelain and 
of silk, which originated with them. Yet they 
are entirely unscientific. These arts are with them 
the slow growth of centuries, the result of acci¬ 
dent, or of rude and undirected experiment; and 
though so perfect, it should be remarked that they 
i. are rivaled, and in many points excelled by the 
similar manufacturesi of'’Europe, though the lat- 
ter are of very recent origin. 
Among the reasons that explain the very limited 
advantages that science has furnished to agricul¬ 
ture. should be noticed principally the infancy of 
science; chemistry,geology and the other natural 
sciences, have only within half a century assumed 
such shape -as to promise much to the farmer. 
This infancy has not prevented science from assist¬ 
ing the other arts. It has been of great service to 
them so far as its aid has been sought. The great 
companies that carry on mining operations, print 
works, &c., having abundance of capital, concen¬ 
trated in a small space, can afford to employ che¬ 
mists at large salaries, to invent processes that 
shall increase their profits; more especially since 
they can keep secret, and monopolise any valuable 
methods that may be discovered. The principles 
and details involved-fin the chemical arts are not 
so numerous and complicated as are those that 
affect the various branches of husbandry, and 
therefore admit of more easy investigation. Scien¬ 
tific agriculture can not be greatly advanced, ex¬ 
cept by experiments on a large scale. Very few 
individuals unite the pecuniary and intellectual 
qualifications requisite to conduct extensive expe¬ 
riments successfully. 
Boussingault of France, and Lawes of Eng¬ 
land, both wealthy landed proprietors, have car¬ 
ried through many interesting and valuable expe¬ 
riments; but their investigations need criticism 
and repetition to settle their vajue. 
The mere chemist is not fully adapted to advance 
the science of agriculture; for although chemistry, 
more than any other one department of science, 
may promise profit to the farmer, yet it alone is 
not sufficient. No one can properly attempt ag¬ 
ricultural researches who has not a practical know¬ 
ledge of the usual and the approved methods of 
farming. 
It is not a wonder that scientific men, who are 
greatly occupied with the duties of the College 
and University, make serious errors in their at¬ 
tempts to develope the principles of agriculture. 
It is rather a wonder that they have made so few 
mistakes. When the farmer appreciates the ser¬ 
vices of the man of science, as he does those of 
the carpenter or blacksmith, and demands and 
offers to remunerate his labors, then we may look 
for rapid improvement. Agricultural Societies 
have the power to accomplish what farmers can¬ 
not do individually. In Great Britain, the High¬ 
land and Agricultural Society, and the Royal Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, have long sustained scientific 
investigations and to no small purpose. We owe 
to Agricultural Societies much of the valuable 
influence that Prof. Johnston has exerted through 
his published lectures. 
The New-York State Ag. Society has the honor 
of calling forth the admirable “ Elements” of Prof. 
Norton, and the present indications are that many 
associate bodies in this country and in Europe, are 
rapidly becoming devoted to the establishment of 
agriculture on a sound basis. 
Notwithstanding science has yet done compara¬ 
tively little for the farmer, it has contributed some 
principles and practices of very great importance. 
We can do no more here than briefly indicate some 
of these. 
Chief among them is the discovery of the true 
nature of vegetable nutrition. The plant increases 
in size and weight, by taking into its structure 
certain ingredients of the soil in which its roots 
are fixed, of the air which bathes its leaves, and 
of the water that is always present in both air and 
soil. Chemistry has shown what particular bodies 
