Year: 1876

other sick of it! Was the soil of one field
such that the lime fastened the decomposi-
ton OF Certain slowly-solubie particles which
were essential to the vigorous growth OF the
crop, while upon the other no such slowly
soluble material existed? What manures
had previously been useds What is the
chemical constitution of the two crops cult
waited? These, among many, are few of
tie inquiries that at once suggest themselves
to the scientific farmer and it is not impossi-
BILE that their investigation would prove un-
der other methods of cultivation or by sub
sequent use of other fertilizers or by ex-
tfemes of temperature or rainfall, that the
very field which at the one time produced
Che scahty crop, owing, as was supposed,
to the use of lime, would then by it's use
produce most bountifully; while the other
neld might i'll the same degree be rendered
hnfertile


III this supposable case, though the un-
scleh'illc 1armer's conclusion that lime was
harmful in the one case and beneficial in the
other was correct, the conditions remaining
unchanged, he gains no inkling of what
those conditions are and is necessarily incap-
able of drawing any inference whatever for
future guidance.


In ridiculing science as applied to farming,
farmers know what they do. Scientific
farming may be freely defined as perfect
farming-for science is but knowledge
he who approximates more nearly to this, is
to that extent a scientific farmer, though he
may be ignorant of every technical word Oh
process known to science, and though the
principles which he practices upon his own
farm may prove utterly worthless as applied
| to another The same may be said Of every
other science.


Is one who reasons accurately and forci.
bly, any the less a logician because he knows
not even the Specification of the word syllo-
gism? Is a musician any the less musi-
elan because he cannot tell one note from
another? Is he any the less a mathematic-
ian who can compute by a peculiar mental
process of his own the number Of bricks re-
quired to construct cistern Of a given diam
eter, though he may never have heard Of
the classic Pons osuaoa7tm?


The difference then between the good un.
educated farmer and the scientific farmer is
but one of degree; and in condemning the
latter the former not only condemns him
self in so far as he IS good farmer, but op
poses the requirement and the dissemination
of that knowledge which directed to causes
as well as effects; directed to the recording
of all facts appertaining to agriculture from
whatever source, provides the sole means by
which true knowledge may be gained and
disseminated among all people and through
coming ages.


The science of farming is still in its infan
cy. The profoundest workers are still crop
ing in all but darkness-but the dim light il
the distance and the flashes that oftener ant
more brightly tighten up the vista of agri
culture, bid us hope that more constan
and brighter light is about to dawn, and ht
who thrusts himself forward to scorn th'
noble labors of those who seek to hasten it
whether by labors in the field, labratory, o.
study, may live, it is to be hoped, to blush
over their short-sightedness.-Rnral Neu
| Yorker.


THE ONLY WAY.


IF farmers would become influential they