Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-01-03
What Has Science Done for the Farmer

press his belief that science has done
very little in aid of agriculture and the
editor of the Boston Cuitirdior takes similar
ground in an article which concludes thus
ave must keep to practice, for it alone is
worthy of confidence. Practical men in
England, France and Germany agreed that
chemistry had done them no good, it having
neither increased their crops nor augmented
their incomes"
We have always maintained that the prac-
teal observations OF working men, the re-
searches of naturalists and chemists, and
the meditation of trained thinkers, are all
necessary for the development and advance
ment of scientific agriculture. 1t is folly for
the farmer the chemist and the reasoner to
deride each other, or to undervalue the use
of either in promoting the progress of i'm
provement.
1t is not necessary, or desirable, that these
three functions should be always exercised
by different persons. Both the practical
observer and the scientific investigator ought
also to be thinkers, and able by the exercise
of reason, to deduce useful conclusions from
their observations and experiments. In pro-
portion as they do so, do they contribute to
science and aid the progress of agricul-
tural art.
Four sciences have aided agriculture in an
especial degree, viz geology, chemistry,
botany and zoology. The contributions of
each of these have been important, and are
of practical value to every farmer who is
sufficiently informed Of them to make use
of the knowledge they furnish. That they
have not been more useful is due to the gen.
eral lack of acquaintance among farmers
with the treasury of facts they offer. We
know of no farmer who is in any degree a
geologist, botanist, chemist or zoolo-
gist, who is not free to acknowledge that
each of those sciences affords multitudes of
facts that are of practical advantage to him
in the operations of the farm, making these
easier, more profitable and far more inter
esting and agreeable.
A knowledge of the origin, formation and
composition of soils, supplied by geology
will aid any man in the intelligent selection
of farm, in forming a judgment of its
present value, its enduring fertility, its
adaptation to special branches of husbandry,
and the proper method of tilling it for the
most profitable results. The possession of
such knowledge as this science furnishes
would save many of our farmers from costly
and often ruinous mistakes. That a few
shrewd, observing men have collected in a
lifetime an amount of practical experience
that will enable them to Judge Of soils as
well or better than mere scientific geolo-
gist is no argument against the above state
ments. Such men are biologists, in rude
and limited way. Within the limits of
their experience they have learned, by life
times observation, what geologic treatise
would tell them in day. 1t is true that
the geologic treatise would not in that time
give the mental training-the culture, in the
and toilsome personal observation and ac'
companying thought confers and the young
school geologist, therefore, would be often
outdone, in the selection Of farm, by the
trained though illiterate observer. But the
farmer, with moderate practical experience
added, would, if possessing equal natural
ability, in very few years possess more
skill than the other had acquired in life
time. 1t is the same here as in every other
branch of knowledge. The iliterate mar
of natural shrewdness who is required in his
daily work to count, add, subtract, multiply
and divide, will in time acquire consider
able skill, and within certain limits can cal
culate more rapidly and correctly than the
smartest school-boy. But give the school
boy one-tenth of the old mans practice, ant
he will be able to perform thousands of cal
culations far beyond the reach Of the self
taught mathematician.
Chemistry stands by and assists the edu
Gated farmer in every part of his work. Tht
knowledge this science supplies enables hin
TO trace in a short time, the defects of hi
soil the wastes OF his manures or the short
comings Of his crops, TO their several causes
and to apply the proper remedies to eacl
case. Furnished with the facts this scienc,
affords, he understands the needs of his live
stock for growth, for fattening, and for tn,
production of the wool, the milk, and Other
products they supply, and will provide TO
each necessity in the most economical an,
efficient manner. This is illustrated beauti
fully by a correspondent of the Rural Neo
Yorker, in reply to Mr.. Miner. lie says h
cuts large amount of coarse swamp Ina,
that costs him about three dollars per ton il
the barn, and which alone is almost worth
less for feed. Yet under the instruction o
Professor Atwater of the Connecticut Agri
culture Experiment Station, by feeding will
every ton of this hay four hundred pound
of oil cake, costing twelve dollars, he is abb
to keep his COWS in as good condition, an
get from them as much and as good milk a
he can get from thirty dollars worth of tn
best hay Here, by the application of a sir
gle result of chemical investigation, savin
of fifty per cent. in the feed of herd O
COWS is made. The swale hay was rejecte
by the cattle because it was deficient i
some elements OF nutrition existing in goo
hay, but which could be supplied NOR
cheaply in the oil meal, TO the mutual salts
faction of the cows and their owner.
And the editor OF the Cuifiuator, with a
unconscious self-refutation, gives in the yer
next column to his arraignment of agricu
tural chemistry, an elaborate summary OF tn
conclusions of Professor Caldwell upo
Nitrogen in Farm Yard Manure" to whic
he appends this comment of his own pen
"This digest we have made cannot fail fo
chilly to impress the minds of farmers wit
what we have not unfrequently referred to /
these columns, that there is great differenC
in the value of barn-yard manure, wheth'
the excrements be such as are dropped b
cattle that are fattening for beef, or of 9th,
stock fed on swamp hay and like poor Or i
different or passable forage
Now this editor is shut up 20 one of tv
conclusions--eit the Investigations !