ces of a consulting agriculturist required?]

_The way in which an analysis should be used_ is a matter of much
importance. To a man who knows nothing of chemistry (be he ever so
successful a farmer), an analysis, as received from a chemist, would be
as useless and unintelligible as though it were written in Chinese;
while, if a chemist who knew nothing of farming, were to give him advice
concerning the application of manures, he would be led equally astray,
and his course would be any thing but _practical_. It is necessary that
chemical and practical knowledge should be combined, and then the value
of analysis will be fully demonstrated. The _amount_ of knowledge
required is not great, but it must be _thorough_. The information
contained in this little book is sufficient, but it would be folly for a
man to attempt to use an analysis from reading it once hurriedly over.
It must be studied and thought on with great care, before it can be of
material assistance. The evenings of one winter, devoted to this
subject, will enable a farmer to understand the application of analysis
to practical farming, especially if other and more compendious works
are also read. A less time could hardly be recommended.

[Is there any doubt as to the practical value of analysis?

How should samples of soil for analysis be selected?]

Where this attention cannot be given to the subject, the services of a
Consulting Agriculturist should be employed to advise the treatment
necessary to render fertile the soil analyzed.

Every farmer, however, should learn enough of the principles of
agriculture to be able to use an analysis, when procured, without such
assistance.[AQ]

Nearly all scientific men (all of the highest merit) are unanimous in
their conviction of the _practical_ value of an analysis of soils; and a
volume of instances of their success, with hardly a single failure,
might be published.

Prof. Mapes says, in the _Working Farmer_, that he has given advice on
hundreds of different soils, and _not a single instance_ can be found
where he has failed to produce a profit greater than the cost of
analysis and advice. Dr. T. C. Jackson, of Boston, the late Prof.
Norton, of Yale College, and others, have had universal success in this
matter.

Analysis must be considered the only sure road to economical farming.

_To select samples of soil for analysis_, take a spadeful from various
parts of the field--going to exactly the depth to which