The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-05-29
AGRICULTURE.

SCIENTIFIC FARMING PRAcrICAL.--
| The farmer who drains his land or tries
new manure, or q new machine or a
new crop, calls himselfa practical man
he despises all experiment, and laughs
at the teaching Of scientific men. He
| IS not conscious that when he Is think
| Ing over new plans and adopting new
methods of cultivation he may be Illus
trating in his daily work a series of
| chemical and physiological expert
ments Of extreme complexity and i'm
rortance. Men of the highest order of
intellect and whose researches were
the most original, have been practical
mon. Practice and theory are hut
phases OF the same form OF >thought.
The practical farmer, II he ever per-
mits his mind to rise above the tradi-
tions and empirical rules of his fore
fathers, and asks, "Could not that have
been done In better and more perfect
way; would not this be an improve
mentI" becomes q theorist, and when
he tries to realize these conceptions,
becomes a practical man. Theory ana
practice are inseparable In every art,
however much men may try to disunite
them. The most practical man is oftcf
tho most theoretical. Every operation
Is with him theory. He recognizes no
change; he will admit of no trial and
experiment, because that would be an
knowlcdgment Of science. Every
science Is built up Of principles. and
these principles carried inIo work
called practice. There Is the science of
astronomy AMI navigation; the science
OF geometry, and the art of land meas
uring; tho science OF mechanics and
the art of making machinery; the SCI
enco Of chemistry and the art of agri-
culture. Almost every science Is the
basis of cograte art. Tho most OBJ
vious and natural way of arriving at a
real knowledge Of the art Of agriculture
would be to know something of those
art being nothing more than the appll-
cation Of principles previously acqllir-
ell. A farmer who Is able to unite
perfect mastery of principles with a
Knowledge of practical details Is an
educated and scientific farmer. 1t
migh reasonably be inferred that the
shortest and easiest method of learning
any industrial art, and the surest guide
to new discoveries in the art, would be
knowledge of those fundamental
principles upon which the art was
based. No amount Of practical skill
and eXr rience could ever replace the
want Of scientific knowledge in farm
ing.
WEEDs.-Weeds eat up the farmers
Substance. The truth of this ought to
be apparent to every one who would
figure up the cost of cradicating them
from the crops. And yet 1t Is not an
enemy who hath done this. Tho farm
er himself Is the one to blame. Just as
the fields are white with daisies and
white seed, the stubbles green with rag
weed, the road sides clothed with gold
en- rods, thistles or creeping briars, tho
door yards, hooks and coroers of the
farm bear their burdens, and these
nurseries Of weeds are neglected with
the greatest care. Timothy cut for seed
Is gathered with tho daisies; clover Is
collected with rag weed or thistle down,
ana tue seeds are sent abroad for sale,
thus polluted with foul weed which
are spread far and wide. The thought
OF this fact recently came home to me
IN leading seed store rs I examined a
bag Of Hungarian grass seed. of which
ohe-1our:h at least consisted Of seeds of
weeds. The truth Is, we rarely SOW
seeds Of plants desired for crops with
out sowing with them many kinds of
weeds. And If we should ask our
selves. whence came these weeds p"
we should In truth reply, "sown by our
own hands y The ground Is more than
sufficiently stocked to give us work
enough to keep down weeds for tho
term of our natural lives, but that we
should negiigenlly SOW fresh seed or
permit weeds to ripen their seeds, Is q
monstrous mistake. There Is time now
| TO avoid this tho present season in a
great measure. Numerous pestiferous
weeds are constantly maturing; they
| could be gathered and burned, and we
could easily remedy the other mistake
Dy ordering only clean seed, and re-
iusing to accept any other. If this
were always done, the seedsmen would
DC chary OF purchasing foul seeds and
would avoid supplying them to their
| customers.
ORCHARD AND Observation-Disclosures
| sets out an orchard OF course does it
with the expectation of a return in
fruit. No ono plants corn or potatoes
without first considering if the land will
| give him crop; If the soil Is not in
tho proper condition he knows that he
must make 1t so, or lose his seed and
| his labor. Much less than corn and
potatoes can fruit trees make a crop on
nothing. Tho trees will struggle along,
w luo OcSI tney Cal1, DuC SuCn OrCnaruS
do not pay, and "run out" early. Un-
less the land is sufficiently fertile for
an ordinary farm crop, it should be
made so; no soil too wet for such crops
will answer for fruit trees, which, tU
succeed, need we'll drained land. The
plowlng should be as deep as the char.
acter Of the soil will allow. and the SUBJ
soil plow may generally follow the
other with benefit.
| If you want to raise a vegetable that
Will take the place of meat, set out
vegetable egg plants 8 feet apart each
way, in good ground, and you will
have 1t.
Sugar and CdlOmel.-TO the researches
made by Nj. jolly appears to be due the
valuable discovery, as relating to the
changes that may take place in the
stomach, that really pure sugar has no
effect on calomtl, but that many sugars
ale sold in which a small portion of
lime hydrate Is left they are white,
but have only undergone the first crys-
tallization. Further, some Of the sugars
! Of commerce are acid, and the faoG IL