Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-06-19
Reported for the Journal.
THE SCIENCE OF FARMING.
An Address Delivered before the New Ham
over Agricultural Society. at their last
Annual Meeting, i'm May. 1865. and pub
lished at the Request of the Executive
Committee,
BY PROF. B. F. GRADY, JI.
M. President and Gentlemen Of The
Nom Hoalnl,e.. I.n1L1ltaL 4 kt1.icnLLtl,l.n
New Hanover County.

M. President and Gentlemen Of The
Ne1o HdnO0el' County Agricultural Society ::
If [ had been controlled by merely per-
sonal considerations when / was honored
by an invitation from your Executive COM
mittee to be present on this occasion and
give you my views on some appropriate
subject which might select, I should have
been compelled to decline. But the inter
est feel in the advancement of Agricultu-
raj Science, and my earnest desire to do
anything | can in furtherance of the de-
signs of such Societies as this, were mo-
tives too powerful to be disregarded.
The New Hanover County Agricultural
Society has taken high stand among the
patriotic institutions Of the State, and we
may reasonably hope that it will achieve q
success worthy of the patriotism and intel
iigence of the gentlemen to whom its in
tereSts are entrusted.
Differing from those associations of for
mer years, whose chief purpose was the de-
velopment of mere skill in the management
of farms, and the only public evidences of
whose existence were the annual County
Fairs, this Society has based its efforts on
the all-important truth that ii is impossible
to maize useful changes IN the operations OF
any art arithom knowledge Of the reasons
for those changes. And this is the right
step in the right direction. 1t is taking
hold of the subject in the true spirit of phi
losophy.
Within the natural world nothing hap
pens without cause there is reason for
everything, and when we know the reason
we have q truth which makes us =" free in
deed" Thus it is with the school boy,
after he learns achy rule is true, he has no
difficulty in remembering the rule, and if
the farmer knew 1Chy he plows, he would
always know achen and bo,y to pillow, and we
should have no more controversies about
deep and shallow blowing. &c. in all the
operations of the farm, and it is manifestly
the first duty of the husbandman to ac-
quaint himself with all the scientific prin-
ciples which he needs to apply to his bust
ness.
Every art has its science, and there is no
one of the physical sciences which does not
explain the principles which underlie one
or more of the arts. But it is difficult for
the farmer to learn this fact, because scien-
tlhc questions are generally discussed in a
Language which he does not understand,
and they are confined chiefly to Literary
Socletles, and to those Seminaries of learn
ing, whose purpose is to divert the best
talent OF the country from its industrial
pursuits. He feels, too, that thew are be-
yond his comprehension, and he con-
soles himself with the fact that he has lived
thus far without troubling his brains about
oxides or acids. But here is his mistake.
All Science is common sense when Invested
OF its perplexing nomenclature it is SIM
ply an explanation of the operations of ma
lture going on round about Us it gives