Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1849-12-07
Agricultural.
From the Albany Cultivator
The Relations of Science to Agriculture.

The Relations of Science Agriculture.
We copy the following from the last No. of the
Journal Of the Transactions of the Highland and Ag-
Society of Scotland. 1t was written by
DR.. ANDERSON chemist to the Society, and its prac-
teal and common sense view of the subject will COM
mend it to the attention of our readers:
The application of science to agriculture is sub
iect on which much has been said and written du-
ring the last few years, and which has occupied so
much of the attention of the agricultural public, that
it may seem superfous to add to what has already
been penned It has always appeared to me, how
ever that there are still many points of great mpor
lance for the practical man to consider which have
either never been sufficiently prominently presented
to his view Or which, from their being less striking,
perhaps less encing, have been allowed to tall m
to the background, and have hence led to certain
amount of msapprehension in regard to the exact
position of science and its relations to practice Such
misapprehensions it would be desirable, under any
circumstances to dispel but now that the Highland
and Agricultural Society has actively taken up the
prosecution of agricultural chemistry it is of prma
nv Importance that the farmer and the chemist should
come to a distinct understanding with regard to the
mutual bearings of scientific and practical agricul
ture-the manner in which they can be made to as
sist one anotherand what is of all others the most
important point how they be made to cooperate.
SO as to establish on firm basis the general princ
pies of agricultural science which must necessarily
be the first step towards the development OF scientific
practice Under these circumstances have thought
that | might advantageously refer very shortly to
some of these Matters and point out what we are in
future to expect from the application of chemistry to
agriculture the especially it is not very diff
cult to perceive that the interest which attached to
it has somewhat abated with the general public,
though believe it to be undiminished with our most
active and intelligent practical men.
This very diminution in the interest attaching to
chemical agriculture, believe to be mainly founded
one of the most serious apprehensions- serious
alike to agriculture and to chemistry which
have now to contend; and that is, the erroneous
and altogether exravagant expectations which some
persons entertained regarding the extent and rapid
ty of the influence which chemistry is likely to exert
upon agriculture To hear them talk of it, mig ht
almost imagine that chemistry, as by the wand of a
magician is at to spread fertility bar
rem moors, and raise abundant crops where nothing
ever grew before; and that the chemist can, by a
few simple experiments determine with absolute
precision the circumstances under which the farmer
must go to work. so as to produce abundant crop
1t needs not to be mentioned that such views the
exception, not the rule but, between this extreme
and those likely to be fulfilled, there many
expectations which, with less apparent extravaganza
arc equally beyond the powers OF chemistry in its
present imperfect state and involve questions which
if they can be answered must await the advance
of pure science to point much beyond that to which
it has yet attained. Nor is it, perhaps matter of
much surprise that such expectations should have
been entertained, it must be admitted that the
general public is not in position to estimate cor
rectly the extent of the benefits which it is likely to
derive from the application of science to any art
and unfortunately in the present instance, it has
been mised by the far too laudatory terms in which
the application of chemistry to agriculture talk
ed of some years ago. Hopes were then excited
which, to those intimately acquainted with chemis-
try, it very evident could not he sustained but
which the enthusiastic embraced at once only, how
ever when they were disappointed, to abandon as
worthless, the whole science itself, along with the
nnohtruSyo Olo1iaum Of roa1 which al.
together lost sight of amidst the ruins OF their lofty
expectations. Even those who take more cautious
and sober view of the progress of agricultural chemis
try, apt to be led into expectations greater than
facts justify by the extraordinary progress which
the application of chemistry has effected in 9th
arts; such, for instance, the art of bleaching
and the manufacture of soda, which chemistry: by
great stride, raised from the state of primitive
rudeness which they had existed almost from time
mmemorial, to at least of comparative perfec.
ton Such facts may lead at first sight to expect
that the application of chemistry to agriculture
should be followed by equally rapid results; but
little further consideration seems to point out very
material difference between such arts and the cult
walton of the soil In such case as the manufac-
of soda, for instance and, indeed in all those in
which the application of science has produced the
most marked results, the chemist has presented to
him for solution definite and circumscrbed problem
involving the mutual relations of some three four
different substances and he is able to trace the
changes which the coal, common salt, and lime en-
ployed, undergo from the commencement of the pro-
through each successive step, until the soda is
obtained in the perfect state but the art of agri
culture, each question frequently involves not one
but many problems connected with the highest and
most absruse doctrines of the SCIENCE in which not
merely chemical forces, but the far more reconcile
phenomena of life, come into play, and in which the
Investigations Of the chemist carried on, and his
conclusions tested under the influence of weather
climate. and many other perturbing causes
The extreme complexity of the problems with
which agricultural chemistry has to deal, may be
conceived from the fact that most plants contain
from twelve to fifteen different substances all essen
tial to their existence the relations of which must be
investigated before definite views can be obtained
regarding the changes which 60 on in the organism
of the plant. These relations, moreover are fal
more complicated than the number of the ele-
ments alone would lead us to suppose: the single
element of sulphur for instance which does not con-
stutc more than two three parts in the thousand
of plants exists there in not less than three diff
ferent forms of combination in each of which it is
essential to the plant those which form the great
proportion of its bulk. Now, it must be sufficiently
manifest that questions involving elements of such
completely not to be solved rapidly or easily
as the far simpler problems of mineral chemistry
and that not merely account of their superior
completely alone, but because in the case theo
retical chemistry sets far our way towards the
solution while in the other there is still greater
gap to be filled up, whole mine of scientific facts tc
be worked out, before in the condition to ap
proach sufficiently near the comprehension of these
more complicated phenomena. In fact, the latter
not questions of pure chemistry but intimate
ly interviewer with vegetable physiology-so much
So indeed, that in many instances it is scarcely pos
sible to decide to which of these two sciences they
ought strictly to belong And it is just herein that
their great difficulty consists, for there is nothing
certain than that those questions which lie
to speak the confines of two sciences require fol-
their successful investigation high degree of devel
opment of both the sciences which they depend