342 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It is true we cannot expect to rival English agriculture by a 
single step, but by patient, thoughtful, and preserving industry 
we can elevate American agriculture to a much higher stand¬ 
ard than has yet been obtained on this continent. There are 
heights and depths and breadths yet unexplored, and those the 
most advanced have yet barely entered the portico of this 
grand temple of agricultural science. 
For agriculture is not only a science, but it should be made 
the Head Centre of all the other sciences, and it should call 
them to its aid to explore the labyrinths and reveal the laws 
'that govern Nature’s great laboratory. The chemist can tell 
the parts that compose a grain of wheat, yet with all the world 
before him he cannot put those parts together and make a 
single grain of wheat. Yet the science of agriculture is high¬ 
er, and teaches how to produce what the chemist cannot make. 
Agriculture should not only call to its aid the arts and scien¬ 
ces, but also experience and experiments, to tell how to increase 
the productive power of our farms. At one time it was claimed 
that the chemist was to assist us in this great work by furnish¬ 
ing us an analysis of our soils, and teaching us in what they 
abound and in what they are deficient, what crops they could 
grow, and what crops they could not grow ; but these hopes 
have failed, owing to the great variety of soil often in the same 
field, and the expense attending the analysis and several other 
causes. But we have derived other very important knowledge 
from their labors. Their analyses of crops cannot be too high¬ 
ly prized or closely studied. While analysis of soil is like a 
sealed book to all except to the one for whom it is made, the 
analysis of crops is a chart to be read and studied by all who 
would understand agriculture and it will be found in harmony 
with experience and experiments. 
The farmer should know what crops are great feeders on his 
most valuable elements, and what are not. Let him for in¬ 
stance, examine the tables of analyses of flax seed and buck¬ 
wheat, and see what gross feeders they are on the phosphates 
before he undertakes the growing of them largely. An acre 
of hops consumes as much nitrogen as is contained in 1,000 
