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Excerpt from The Culture of Farm Crops: A Manual of the Science of Agriculture, and a Hand-Book of Practice for American Farmers Not a farmer of that day, nor a chemist, knew that bones furnished phosphoric acid to plants; or that guano provided in its ammonia the materials from which their gluten and other nitrogenous substances were derived. Indeed the renowned father of agricultural science: Liebig - when he propounded his mineral theory, which was that the ashes of plants contained everything which they drew from the soil, and that if the mineral substances contained in the ashes, were supplied in sufficient quantity to the crops, there would be scarcely a limit to the product, excepting the space in which they were contained - knew nothing about the invaluable nitrogen which we now know to be wholly indispensable to plant growth. But light has grad ually dawned upon us, and by slow and sometimes faltering progress, there has been built up a system of agricultural science which explains the laws of plant growth and affords the most important information to the cultivator of the soil. Science is based upon fact. Philosophy is based upon speculation. Science is the outgrowth of philosophy, be cause before we can reach a true knowledge of any fact we must approach the study of it by a well devised theory, changed as may be necessary, and tested patiently and slowly until the knowledge sought is found. This know ledge, when verified by practice, sufficiently proved and classified, becomes science. Science then is nothing for the farmer to fear, or cast doubt and suspicion upon. Theory as has been said, has no part or lot in it; it is a summary of known facts, and is therefore of the most valuable use to the farmer as it gives him a sound basis upon which to build up such conclusions in regard to his practice as will enable him to meet the various difficulties which are al ways arising in his work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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