The gardener's and farmer's reason why; containing reasons for the principles of scientific cultivation applicable to gardening and agriculture

Front matter

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Preface

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exhibits a purpose l in all t h i n g s ; and it is the duty of Man to ascertain what that purpose is.

Nothing exists with out laws to govern its existence.

The high - er the or¬ ganization of a body, the more multiplex are the laws that operate upon its being. Nothing exists that is not, or may not, be made useful to Man ; but the power of using depends

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PREFACE.

upon man’s comprehension of the laws that govern the existence of material things.

To no class of people can a knowledge of Nature’s laws be more interesting or useful than to the Farmer and Gardener. It is their mission to enrich and beautify the earth. Man cannot make a single grain of wheat ; but he invokes the aid of Nature. Going forth with the plough, he opens the warm breast of the earth, and scatters the simple seed. A few months roll away, and over that earth, which lately was brown and bare, there wave millions of ears of golden corn. Thus man produces, by limited knowledge of certain laws, a rich store of food, of which, unaided by Nature, he could not create a single grain.

There are, however, different degrees of knowledge. One man may know that if he makes a furrow in the soil, and places therein a seed, the seed will grow ; and although it may be apparently dead, and be sealed in its tomb by the frost or snow, still the time will come when the leaf will appear above the ground, when the stalk will shoot upward, and the plant continue to grow until it produces fruit.

Another man may know how it is that the plant grows.' He may know that the seed placed in the soil held within its breast a vital germ, and that heat and moisture called that germ into being. He may know that certain elements in the soil contributed to nourish the germ, and that when the plant put forth its leaves to the air they began to feed upon the atmosphere that played around it in the breezes of spring.

Another man may not only know how the plant grows, but ivhy it has been endowed with certain organs — why it lias a root, why a stem, why leaves, why flowers, why seeds ; he may know why a plant has bark and wood and pith ; he may know why air and light and moisture are necessary ; why soils of specific kinds are best suited to particular plants ; and why, when those plants have fed upon such soils, the soils become impoverished, and can no longer yield to the same plants the nourishment they need ; but that, if other plants are placed in the same earth, they will not only thrive, but that during their growth, the soil will become replenished by the elements which had been absorbed by the previous crop.

The knowledge of the first man that we have instanced is such as prevailed some fifty years ago, before Sir Humphry Davy called attention to the elements of Agricultural Chemistry.

The knowledge of the second man we have instanced, is the knowledge of many of the present day, who are content with general and vague ideas ; but who care not to pursue inquiry far, and therefore leave it off at that very point where it becomes interesting and remunerative.

The man who knows the reason why — the third we have instanced — is he who has taken advantage of what Davy and Liebig have taught — who has not been contented to allow philosophers to labour and to write in vain — but who looks at Nature through the light of improved philosophy, and sees in every one of her operations something to delight the eye and charm the understanding. To such a man, the duties of life become a pleasing occupation ; the business of life is no longer a task. In the words of Shakspeare, “ The labour we delight in physics pain.”

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PREFACE.

Two hundred and fifty years ago it was conceived that all the products of vegetables were capable of being generated from water ; a hundred and fifty years ago it was believed that the soil supplied all the nourishment of plants, and that by finely dividing it, any number of crops might be raised in succession from the same land. Fifty years ago Sir Humphry Davy immortalized his name by his course of lectures before the Board of Agriculture, in which he explained the compound organizations of plants, and of soils, and the relations of these to each other ; as well as the influence of light, heat, electricity, moisture, and the atmospheric gases, upon the vegetable creation. In later days, the learned Liebig has taken up the wrork commenced by Davy, and added to the discoveries of the latter many valuable facts which confirm and enrich the theories of the great founder of Agricultural Chemistry.

It is the purpose of this volume to set before the Reader, in the simple form of Question and Answer, many of those important discoveries which come under the denomination of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, especially in relation to Gardening and Agriculture.

But who is he that pretends to supply reasons to men whose lives have been spent in the free air of the country, and from whose feet the brown clod has never yet been shaken ? Who is he that, having been fed to maturity by the produce of the plough, ventures now to tell the Agriculturist how he may improve the system of growing wheat, and recompensing the soil for its losses ?

A fair question, demanding an explicit answer.

The reasons presented to the Gardener and Agricul-

PREFACE.

IX turist in the pages of this volume, are not the produce of oxe mind, nor a single experience, but gleanings of

THE OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF HUNDREDS OF MEN OF THE HIGHEST EMINENCE, WHOSE TITLE TO BE HEARD AND RESPECTED IS BEYOND ALL QUESTION. Their

experience collectively, has been gathered on every soil, in every climate, and their practical deductions have resulted from a careful contemplation of experimental enquiries, extending over at least a hundred years.

The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Reason Why is in itself a sort of Agricultural and Horticultural Society, where the leading minds in a given pursuit speak for the good of all.

First, there is Sir Humphry Davy, who, as long ago as the year 1802, submitted to the Board of Agriculture his views of the influences of chemical laws upon vegetation ; at that time chemistry itself was young, and it had been, therefore, impossible to make an earlier application of its principles to the most important of all economical pursuits.

Next, there is Baron Liebig, Professor of Chemistry at Giessen, whose enlarged views of Agricultural Chemistry have been the theme of discussion and experiment since the year 1840, and whose opinions, carefully analyzed, are presented in this work, as expressed by himself so recently as last year (1859), after reviewing the previous twenty years’ experience.

Then there is Mr. Lawes, of Rothamstead Park, whose papers on Agricultural Chemistry, in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, have created so great an interest, and

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PREFACE.

whose experiments, conducted upon liis own farm, under his immediate superintendence, have proved of great practical value. Although Mr. Lawes differs in his conclusions from the principles laid down by Liebig, h is theory points equally to the importance of applying scientific principles to the cultivation of plants ; and Liebig aspires to indicate the ONLY true principles.

Among many other Authorities whose views and experience are given in this volume, are Dr. Voelcker, Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester ; Dr. Charles Spregnel, Professor of Agriculture in the Caroline College of Brunswick ; Dr. Daubeny, Professor of Rural Economy in the University of Oxford ; J. F. W. Johnston, Esq., F.R.S., Author of “Lectures on Agri¬ culture in Relation to Chemistry and Geology ; ” Dr. S. L. Dana, of Lowell, U.S., Author of “A Muck Manual for Farmers ; ” J. T. Way, Esq., Consulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society ; J. C. Nesbit, Esq., Principal of the Agricultural and Chemical College, Kensington ; J. A. Nash, Esq., Instructor of Agriculture in Amherst College, and Member of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture ; A. D. Tiiaer, of Celle, in Germany, an eminent agriculturist and author of important works upon Husbandry ; Henry Stephens, Esq., F.R.S.E., Author of “The Book of the Farm,” and “ The Book of the Garden J. C. Morton, Esq., Author of “ A Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, Practical and Scientific,” and Editor of “ The Agricultural Gazette ;” C. W. JonNSON, Esq., Author of the “ Farmer’s Cyclopaedia ;” Pn. Pusey, Esq., late President of the Royal Agricultural Society ; Lord Ashburton, President of the Royal Agricultural Society; A. T. Knight, Esq., late President of the Royal Ilorti-

PREFACE.

XI cultural Society ; Sir John Sinclair, the great promoter of the Board of Agriculture, and of numerous practical improvements ; together with many others, including farmers of the “ old school,” whose names will be found appended as notes to their various opinions, and state¬ ments of fact.

With such an array of Authorities as these, it matters little who the individual may be that has brought into one focus so large an amount of divergent theory and experience upon the important subjects of Agriculture and Gardening.

There is only one point, in his own labours, to which

the Author of this volume begs to call especial attention.

When, in the company of a keeper, he has walked over farm lands in pursuit of game, the practised eye of the latter has been able, in an instant, to recognise the run of a rabbit or hare, or the trail of a pheasant, as indicated by the dog in pursuit ; when called upon to “ look out,” the Author has lost many a shot by not having placed

reliance in the premonitions of a practised observer.

“ There she sits ! ” said the Keeper one day ; pointing to something at a distance, upon a fallow held. But the untutored eye of a Novice could see nothing other than clods of earth, where the Countryman plainly descried Puss, serenely squatting upon her form. Doubting the intimation, the Novice sauntered onward, until Puss, springing from close by his feet, started oh* with a speed accelerated by the report of a shot far in her rear, which raised only a cloud of dust from the scattered mould, while the Countryman doffed his hat, and broke cover with his fingers, to ease his outraged senses. Let it be understood, however, that in latter years this fault has been amended, and that the Novice has profited by experience !

PREFACE.

XII

This illustration is intended to enforce a matter in point : in the setting forth of ideas, as in the marlring down of game, there is a certain degree of sagacity not easily acquired. The Author is, in this instance, the Keeper ; he has to take the Farmer over the pages of this book, and to point out where anything lies which, being brought to the bag of the understanding, will crown the pursuit. The “ run ” of any particular idea, which the Farmer is required to follow, is here indicated by italic letters ; when the Reader sees these, let him fix his attention to their meaning , follow them closely, and when he comes upon small capitals, he is close upon the game, and must look out, or, like the Author with the hare, lie will, through inattention, get only dust in his eyes, inhere he might have brought something valuable to his bag.

It should be stated here, that the treatment of the Anatomy and Physiology of Plants, with explanations of the special uses of peculiar properties and structures, has been reserved for the Botanical and Horticultural Reason Why, which will follow this in the Series, and be an admirable companion to the present volume.