VhN VRRNk'EtJ- <V-f- 
THIRD 
Yol. I. 
Smjtcrt® ijji #nil irali tljt 3Binii. 
ALBANY, SEPTEMBER, 1853. 
SERIES. 
No. IX. 
False and Genuine Teachings of Science. 
! T is well known that for many years past, and in¬ 
deed at its commencement, the Cultivator adopted 
“Science with Practice ” as its motto, and the same 
guiding principle has been maintained by the Coun¬ 
try G entleman, during the short period of its existence. 
Actual experiment has been assumed as the great and 
only test of the accuracy of all theoretical propositions. 
The real value of any proposed mode of culture, can 
be fully known only as its results are determined in ac¬ 
tual practice. A chemist, for example, compounds a 
new manure from theoretical reasoning, which he is 
confident will exceed all other manures; but after 
actual and repeated trial, it proves a perfect failure. 
Now, which is to be the standard for determining its 
efficacy, the theory, or the practice? Can scientific 
reasoning satisfy even a scientific farmer, that this ar¬ 
tificial manure exerts a highly fertilizing influence on 
his wheat-field, when actual trial and accurate mea¬ 
surement directly contradict such reasoning, and show 
that the difference of a single bushel per acre is never 
made by its application? Every man, learned and 
unlearned, professor and ditch-digger, will say unhesi¬ 
tatingly that the experiment itself, the amount of the 
crop yielded, is th q final test. 
Let no one answer that this is not an admissible in¬ 
stance, for the fact is well known that a case not un¬ 
like this really occurred in Europe but a few years since, 
under the direction of the most eminent physiological 
chemist of the day. It is true, that after learning much 
since that occurrence, through the teachings of practi¬ 
cal cultivation, scientific men can now point out the 
theoretical fallacy in making the compound; but this 
is only an additional proof of the correctness of the po¬ 
sition we have always maintained, that science must 
be combined with practice if we would reap its full 
benefit, and be able to apply its theories correctly. 
There are interesting cases where some of the truths 
of science have been brought to bear in practice, by 
previous calculation, with the unerring precision of ma¬ 
thematics ; and this is more especially true with me¬ 
chanical philosophy. The architect or engineer deter¬ 
mines beforehand the form of his structure best fitted to 
resist the greatest pressure ; or he may determine the 
precise thickness of his wooden beams or iron shafts, to 
render his building or bridge safe from the danger of 
rupture and falling, without first trying the experiment 
of allowing his costly edifice to tumble down, till he 
sees what its parts will bear. So also in the applica¬ 
tion of chemistry to the mixing of medicines, to bleach¬ 
ing, and in many manufactures, where single combina¬ 
tions take place, and where all the minerals are entirely 
at the operator’s control, he may know in advance just 
what to expect. But in the growth of plants, where 
the relations between the numerous chemical substances 
in the soil, and the many proximate elements of vege¬ 
tables, are incomparably more intricate; where the 
combinations, instead of being rapidly formed right 
under the eye of the chemist, are the imperceptible 
work of whole months, and in so dark and concealed a 
manner that the keenest microscope can detect nothing 
of them; and where, in addition to all this, these very 
complex and minute processes are greatly influenced 
and sometimes even arrested by the external action of 
moisture and other causes in the changes of the wea¬ 
ther, the investigation of soils becomes one of extreme 
difficulty and most commonly of much uncertainty. It 
is no wonder then that eminent chemists are at this day 
disputing on the operation of some of the most common 
mineral manures. 
It must be ob.vious, therefore, that to obtain much 
practical benefit from the analysis of soils, everything 
must be thoroughly established by long, accurate, and 
repeated experiment. Yet, superadded to all the diffi¬ 
culties just mentioned, is still another of a most serious 
character,—the extreme minuteness of proportion of 
some important constituents. For example, phosphate 
ojf lime is known to be of great and essential import¬ 
ance to the wheat crop; yet so imperfect are the means 
for its detection in soil where but a ten-thousandth ex¬ 
ists, that an eminent analyst did not even discover a 
trace in the most fertile wheat soil of America, by or¬ 
dinary means. Again, the addition of a hundred 
thousandth part of sulphate of lime to the soil, has, in 
more cases than one, doubled the clover crop; and 
other ingredients in like proportion have produced 
striking effects ; yet what chemist in an ordinary analy¬ 
sis, merely for a farmer’s common practice, would be 
likely to point out the presence and quantity of these im¬ 
portant but hidden substances, so that he might shape 
his management with confidence accordingly ? What- 
