The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-08-23
AGRIOULTURE AS A SCIENCE.
An Address Delivered Before the Giles
%. Farmers Club, July 1888.
BY PROF. C. s. PLUMB.

The agriculture Of antiquity, such |
as Noah the husbandman practiced,
was an art, and has so continued |
all the changes of time,
up to within very recent period.
There was no science in the simp,e
sowing of fields, blowing of crops
and herding of cattle. From father
to son Inc old routine habits passed.
down. The general run of WORK
was pursued with little variation.
Agriculture ae an art never taught
the farmer to look beyond the sim
pile details of planting snd harvest
ing.
When the early settlers first came
to America, the securing of meat
and bread were the first considera-
tons. The forest yieldedthe for
mer, and the meadow, or the for
est cleaned away and the land bro
ken up. when planted gave forth
fruit in it's season, which in turn
was converted into bread. Thus
the necessities of life were obtained
in the simplest manner possible,
based on principles practiced acros
the sea by these same people In 9th
er days. There was no theory to
their work. They planted by the
moon or swelling buds, and every
season brought forth its signs
whereby the tiller of the soil was
guided.
While all knowledge is based on
practice, this experience Is necessa-
rily limited in the early stages of
the art. In the case of agriculture,
we first find it as an art, Of narrow
practical scope. Gradually the
methods of practice were changed,
the art was improved and extended,
and certain facts-tbe result of ex-
perince, we're grouped together
from which men began to general
ize or draw conclusions that final
ly resulted in the establishment of
some correct agricultural law or
principle. And science is simply
knowledge based on CERTAIN facts
and principles. Art is production;
science is knowledge, and the more
perfect the science, the higher and
more accurate will be the inquiry.
We find here and there in very
good abundance in farming COM
munities over the country, certain
persons who detest What they call
"book farming" and who never fail
to sheer at those who attempt the
carrying out Of new methods.
These men may be good farmers,
but they keep within the beaten
paths. They have grown the same
variety of corn for 40 years; they al
ways hill their potatoes; they have
no use for the silo of soiling; they
do not believe in fertilizers, and you
may be sure they believe in hollow
horn. They have no use for agri-
cultural newspapers, but live on,
like father like son. They are solid,
substantial citizens may be, and a
credit to the country, but they are
not what we know to be progressive
men. sur-zs
The advancement made by agri-
culture during the past 200 years is
something marvellous, and to this
progress are we indebted almost en-
tirely to science. Let US see what
some of these improvements are.
In the latter part of the 18th. CEN
fury there was born in England a
man who was later destined to
bring about some OF the most i'm
portant improvements in agricul :
ture. Jethro .Tull was his name
1t occurred to him that the method
of growing wheat and other crops
at that time was not correct, 80
about the year 1701 he began a Sc
ries of Investigations by drilling OF
cultivating his crops by means of
horse hoes. According to his ideas
the value of manure con sisted in
dividing the earth. In order to
make the food in the soil most
available to plants, his plan was tc
hulverize it by repeated plowings
He laid the land into ridges OF five
or six feet, drilling upon the middle
of them one, two or three rows
The space in between the ridges
was often cultivated with horse
hoes: the space between the rows
will, hand hoes. Tull was an en-
fbusiast in his work, so much sc
that he ruiued himself, and was OBJ
liged to lose his own farm, but 81
greatly was he interested in his
work that he secured another farm
and continued his experiments, ant
in 1871 published q work on "Hors'
Hoeing Husbanry." This eccep-
trio man, bred a lawyer, and, a.
a farmer, probably the laughing
stock of his neighbors, turned thu
attention of Europe to the impor-
lance of his Investigations, so tina
asan inspiration from the result o
his labors, we have to-day our per
feet field cultivators aud horse hoes
William Cobbett, an eminent ag-
ricultural writer years after Iull
death, visited his farm, as he says
Sin the character of a pilgrim, ant
in honor of the memory of the rea
founder OF every recent improve
ment that has been made in the az
riculture of England"
Robert Bake was born over l6
wears ago on the same farm wher
his father and grandfather hsd beer
tenants. At the age of so years ht
began to study most carefully tn
physiology of the domestic animals
He had conceived the idea that tn
animal body mighty be greatly per
fected, So as to make 1t muci
more valuable from breeders poin
of view. He was full of energy
thoughtful and persevering, and a
ter many disappointments, crowne
with the Yidicule of neighbors, b
succeeded IN producing q shee
that won the appreciation of b
countrvmen. FIVE years later hi
income from the letting OF his ran
for one season was $50, 900. III
man, once ieered at by his neigh
bors, was the scientific farmer VIII
at later day commanded the
highest respect. He had picture
out 10 his own mind an ideal ar
imal, and then, by wide selectio
and judicious and discriminate
breeding, had produced the tyl
desired. Then by close breedin
and careful wedding out, had a
tempted to fix his tpye. SO gre
was his success that his fame as
breeder became world wide, al
though he worked in secret, othe