of manures, that I feel it due to the people of our State to pre-
serve them from the mistakes and omissions found in that Report,
by furnishing them the truth in this one.

The public now demands scientific truths that they may apply
them to the practical purposes of life, and to meet this demand
many and various books and articles on scientific subjects, as ap-
plicable to Agriculture, have been published of late; some of these
good, many bad, most indifferent. The public demands informa-
tion on these subjects, and with despotic imperiousness it must be
obeyed. The Farmers and Planters of our State are so well edu-
cated and intelligent a class, that they only need to know the ele-
mentary truths that belong to their calling, and they themselves can
work out and practice the practical details; those facts which re-
quire technical skill to elucidate they are not expected to know, but
in all that pertains to mere application as to cultivation, they are the
best teachers themselves; they need no instruction, from other
sources.

There is, however, an intimate connection between all the arts
and sciences, and no one art has ever flourished without scientific
aid: most important is it then that the most ancient and universal
art should receive the aid of the oldest and most useful science.
One of the first records we have is that Adam was driven from Para-
dise and condemned to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, to
till the soil for a support—and almost the next record we have is
that Tubal Cain was an expert in Chemistry, having the ability to
separate metals from their ores, to combine them as alloys and to
fashion them into various useful shapes; all these being the result of
chemical operations.

Most interesting would it be to trace out all the connections
between the arts and sciences, their mutual relations and nice
dependencies. Nature does not map herself out into metes and
bounds, and isolated compartments, as we classify her. We,
in our weakness, do this, and mar her divine beauty by lines
scrawled over her person to assist our weak minds in her compre-
hension. Our limited intellects cannot grasp her majestic grandeur
and we have to study her by piece-meal.

The combined study of the air and what it contains, the earth
and its constituents, have a direct decided bearing on agriculture,
and the latter can neither be studied nor practiced to the greatest
advantage without a knowledge of the former.

The Air or Atmosphere, besides containing substances having
a direct influence on life by their constituent parts, has many
mechanical and physical properties, aiding vegetation. It is the
investing covering of the earth, one of the forces which keep
things in a state of rest and give them form and support. An-
nihilate or even lessen it, and we would have one sea of vapor,

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