PRACTICAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE. 117 
would not be able to keep pace with the wants and progress of 
the times, nor the pupils entering Lhnversities to take the 
advanced position in science which previous progress in the 
elementary school would enable them to attain. A broad and 
comprehensive view of the wants of Agriculture, connects it 
with the Geology and the Meteorology of the country, as well 
as with its Botany and Zoology, and all the varied appliances 
that Chemistry, Natural Philosophy and other sciences can 
bring to bear on its progress. How great is the mystery that 
has been cleared away in reference to the real causes that 
regulate the rotation of crops, the changes in fields subjected 
to fallow, and the right application of manures! How much 
power has been gained by the discovery of the effects of phos¬ 
phates, nitrates and sulphates, under different circumstances, 
and the action of ammonia, soda, potassa, lime, magnesia, 
alumina and silica ! How many are the questions that occur 
to every farmer as to individual soils, and the extent to which 
they can be improved by manures and by labor sufficiently 
accessible at a moderate cost! Who can look at the agricul¬ 
tural publications in different states, and particularly the official 
documents emanating from the press at Washington, from this 
Association, and those in other States, the Farmers’ Magazine 
conducted by your zealous and able Secretry, as well as other 
kindred publications, without being irresistably led to a deep 
conviction of the magnitude of^the subject, and forced to the 
conclusion of the inadequacy of all means to do it justice that 
do not contemplate the early education of youth in select 
lessons m Science? 
Who can calmly examine the decline of the wheat crop in 
the numerous American States, without putting the questions, 
“How far are such reductions to be attributed to an undue 
exhaustion of the soil, and how far is Wisconsin following in a 
similar track?” The summary annexed shows results that have 
been largely quoted, both in this country and Europe: 
