REPORT.

In obedience to the law creating the office of State Agri-
cultural Chemist, I respectfully submit the following Report
to the House of Delegates of Maryland.

It is well known to you that in the communications
which I make to your Honorable Body, that I have to call
your attention and that of the people whom you repre-
sent, to such matters as in my judgment may best subserve
the Agricultural interest. How that duty has hitherto been
performed is answered by the testimony your predecessors
have given, in ordering a much larger number of copies of
my Reports each succeeding year, than was printed by the
former General Assembly.

The Agricultural masses, the people of Maryland, require
to know,—

First: the true principles of Agriculture both as to its
theory and practice.

Secondly: the nature of the substances necessary to the
fullest development and most economical growth of their sta-
ple crops.

Thirdly: the nature and composition of soils, and of ma-
nures, best adapted to them, and then to be shown in the
last place whence to procure these manures, how to avoid
imposition, and how to detect or have detected for them, the
frauds which have consumed the substance earned by their
honest labor.

Theory is but a knowledge of causes and effects reduced to a
system, by wise and judicious codification, each effect being as-
signed to its proper cause, and each cause being made to show
the extent of its legitimate influence, and having assigned to it
the proper sphere of action to which it is entitled by its attributes.

To form a true theory then, we must first ascertain all the pro-
perties, all the adjuncts, and know the whole entire nature of the
subjects which that theory treats of and determines. The subject
which we discuss then, being known, we must ascertain what
things have a bearing upon it, ascertain their nature both as to
their mechanical and physical as well as to their vital and chemi-
cal properties; all these being known, then resort must be had to