For, as there is fuch an infinite diverfity of foils, and as thefe may be fo much altered from their original state by the modes of culture they have been formerly fubjected to, by the manures that may have been applied to them, and by many other circumftances that have not perhaps been hitherto obferved, which may greatly vary the refult of any experiment. And as we have no terms capable of expreffing that great diverfity of foils, differing from one another by fuch delicate and unobferved peculiarities, it neceffarily follows, that it is impoffible to rely with certainty upon any experiment where thefe particulars are not known or attended to. Nor is it poffible to invent terms to exprefs varieties that we ourselves have never attended to; nor could we make others understand these terms, if they were invented, until they also were made fenfible of the peculiarities thefe terms were employed to exprefs.

In thefe circumftances, an experimenter, while he employs the very best terms his language affords, is by no means certain that any one of thefe terms will not convey a feparate idea to every reader that fhall perufe the account of the experiment he records. Thus, in the language of the farmer, there are little more than four grand divifions of foils; viz. clayey, loamy, fandy, and gravelly. And as each of thefe claffes admits of certain obvious characteristical marks which diftinguish it from all the other claffes, every farmer has formed in his own mind a particular idea of each of thefe foils, which always prefents itself to his imagination whenever any one of thefe claffes is named. But as the diverfity of thefe foils, for the purpose of the farmer, is inconceivably great, fome of each clafs being as remarkable for their inexhauftible fertility, as others are for their infuperable fterility, although thefe are not perhaps diftin guishable by any obvious, or to us definable peculiarity in their external appearance; and as other varieties of foil differ as much from one another in refpect of other unobferved properties, it follows, that each separate farmer, when he reads of an experiment that has been made, fuppofe upon a clayey or a loamy foil, naturally imagines that it has been made upon fuch a clay or fuch a loam as those are with which he has been from his infancy acquainted; although it may happen that these two kinds of clay or loam differ from each other in fome of their most effential qualities. He perhaps repeats the experiment, and finds that the refult is extremely different from that of the former experimenter. He records it in the fame words

got another complete dreffing of dung, and was put into turnips, which were a good crop, as before. Next year oats produce about three bolls (18 bushels) per acre. With this crop it was laid out for grafs. A part of it was fown with rye grafs and clover; another part of it with fweepings of a hay-loft, confifting chiefly of feathergrafs and narrow-leaved plantain, or rib-grafs; and a part of it was left to run to grafs without fowing at all. A few dwarfish ftalks of the rye-grafs, and of the feather-grafs, appeared the first year; but not a ftalk of clover either red or white, nor of the rib-grafs. In a few years the fmall bent grafs eftablished itself over the whole field; but the whole produce of it in grafs in either ftate was not worth more than a fhilling per acre. Yet this was a foil that fkilful farmers efteemed a good one, who would have approved of this mode of managing it and it is a foil that with a mode of management proper for itself may be made a very good one .'

See Effays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Vol. II. Difquifitions 40, 41, and 42, where more examples of a fimilar nature are produced,' K

REV. Aug. 1779.

with

with the other, excepting in the contradictory refult. A third perfon examines and compares thefe experiments. What can he conclude? To fee which of thefe is right, be alfo tries the experiment with all imaginable caution, and finds the refult different from either. What inference can he draw from all this? Precifely nothing. And the practical farmer receives equal information, as if none of thefe experiments had ever been made.'

After pointing out fome of the difagreeable confequences that naturally refult from this circumftance, he thus proceeds:

Till mankind fhall turn their attention towards the discovery of thofe leffer peculiarities above alluded to, fuch as record experiments, and describe particular modes of culture, proceed nearly in the fame way with a man who fhould live in a country whofe language was fo defective as to have no fpecific name appropriated to denote the different kinds of grain known among us, but had only a few generic terms that were equally applied to all the kinds that could be included under certain general claffes. One we fhall fuppofe for what we call white corn, including wheat, rye, barley, oats, &c. another for black grain, including beans, peafe, vetches, &c. and perhaps a third for graffes. And if we were further to fuppofe that all the various kinds of grain above enumerated were cultivated in different diatrics of that country, although no two kinds of the fame fpecies were known in any one of thefe diftricts. In thefe circumstances, let us fuppofe that a man, who had long been employed in the culture of wheat, without having ever feen or heard of any of the other kinds of white corn, had difcovered a much furer method of obtain ing abundant crops of it than any of his neighbours, fhould be prevailed on to write a plain account of his practice, and publish it through all the provinces of that kingdom. Every farmer, it is plain, who fhould read the book, would of neceffity imagine that the author treated only of that kind of white corn which he himself had been accustomed to rear (as it would be diftinguifhed by the fame name). Thus one would think that the precepts referred to the culture of barley, another to the culture of oats, and a third to that of rye, &c. Every individual in each district but that in which the treatife was written, would loudly criticife the author, and among his own neighbours, equally ignorant as himself, would find no dif ficulty in pointing out the abfurdities of practice recommended in that book; which could not fail to afford room for abundance of raillery and abufe. If the treatife had been written by one who lived in the district where oats alone were cultivated, the inhabitants of those diftricts where wheat only was known, would look upon the whole as a bundle of the most contradictory abfurdities, and be difpofed to treat the author, not as a vifionary only, but as an impoftor who pretended to have performed impoffibilities, and who endeavoured to lead the unwary into the moft fhocking abfurdities of practice, and to buoy up the inexperienced youth with vain hopes that never could be realised, and would therefore be outrageous in their clamours against him. It is thus that ignorance naturally infpires confidence, and produces unmerited abufe. Need I draw the parallel between this cale and that mentioned immediately before it ? We need only to fubititute the word foil instead of grain, and we ourfelves

4

ourfelves become the nation defcribed above. Like that nation, we have only three different terms, fand, clay, and loam, for ex preffing in our language all kinds of foils, each of them including under it many fmaller varieties, fome one of which varieties only is ufually known in one district, while fome other variety alone is known in another district, which gives rife to thofe virulent criti cifms of one another, fo common among farmers, and which reflect fo much difgrace upon the profeffion of agriculture. Is it not high time for us to endeavour to correct the abuses that spring from fuch degrees of ignorance and inaccuracy?

Nor is it only with regard to foils that one man finds a difficulty in communicating his ideas with certainty to another, but on feveral other fubjects we find the fame deficiency of language arifing from the imperfectness of our knowledge in agriculture. For we do not find terms adapted to exprefs with fufficient accuracy many of the leffer diftinctions that take place both with regard to the animals and vegetables that demand the attention of the farmer. We have, indeed, words to exprefs different kinds of grain, as wheat, barley, oats, pease, beans, &c. but each of thefe kinds of grain admits of many varieties, which poffefs qualities extremely different from one another, that makes it much more profitable to cultivate fome of thefe varieties on certain occafions than others, while fome of the other varieties would fucceed much better in other circumstances. Now, as fome of these varieties are generally cultivated in one diftrict, while others of them only are known in another, it must happen that the farmer who fhall have cultivated only one fort, and defcribes the more fuccefsful manner of rearing it, may greatly mislead the farmer in another district, who cultivates another variety of grain that goes under the fame denomination †.'

Having,

+ I find myself so often at a loss for proper illuftrations of my meaning, when Treating of peculiarities which have been fo little attended to as thofe I have occafion here to mention, that I am obliged on fome occafions to take a very wide circuit to convey the neceffary information.

The potatoe is a plant that is now very univerfally cultivated, the varieties of which are fo numerous, and the peculiar qualities of the feveral varieties are fo extremely different from one another as to furnish a very proper fubject for illuftrating the pofition affumed in the text: yet, fo few are acquainted with the names and peculiarities of the feveral varieties, as gives great reafon to fufpect that what might be written of one of these varieties which happened to be generally cultivated in one part of the country would not be applicable to another variety in another part of it ; even although both fhould be diftinguished from other varieties by the fame name, and come under the fame general defcription. I give an example:

About twenty years ago, the only white potatoe known or cultivated in Scotland, was of the viscous kind, of a kidney fhape. It was at firft called fimply the zbite potatoe; but as other kinds of white potatoes came to be known, it was dif tinguished by the additional epithet, kidney: being long known by the name of white kidney potatoe. But about five or fix years ago another fort of white kidney potatoe was first introduced into Aberdeenshire, which, although agreeing with the firft in fhape, in colour, and in name, was extremely different in many of its most effential qualities. The old was a viscous gluey bulb: the new was the drieft and moft mealy potatoe that ever was known. The old fent its bulbs deep into the ground, which ftraggled to a great diftance from the flem, fo that it required an uncommonly deep foil for rearing it; and a complete trenching was neceffary before it could be properly taken out of the ground: the bulbs of the new rife to the very furface of the ground, fo as to thrive upon a very thin foil, and ramble fo little frøm Ka

the

Having, at confiderable length, illustrated the neceffity of inventing some mode of claffing the objects that demand the attention of the farmer, fo as to prevent ambiguity, our Author finds it neceffary to arrange the experiments in agriculture under four diftinct heads, and to point out the best method of conducting the experiment belonging to each clafs, as follows:

When we take an extensive furvey of the fcience of agriculture, it appears that all the objects that require to be elucidated by means of experiment might be divided into four grand divifions.

The first of thefe may include all thofe experiments that are made with a view to afcertain the peculiar qualities and comparative value of plants: the effects of each in fattening, or otherwise affecting the health or value of any kind of domeftic animals: the most œconomical manner of rearing or of feeding any kind of useful animal, fo as best to fit it for any particular purpose: the afcertaining the comparative value of different claffes of animals for any particular ufe, and obtaining a certain knowledge of the feveral excellencies and defects, of the different varieties or breeds of any of the different claffes of animals; and other facts of this nature.

The fecond clafs of experiments are thofe which relate to the culture of particular plants upon a given foil; the afcertaining with certainty the effects of different manures in varying the nature of that foil, and rendering it more or lefs fitted for producing any given plant, and the effect of different modes of culture as contributing more or less to encourage the luxuriance of any particular crop upon that foil. To which clafs we would alfo refer all thofe modes of practice that tend to improve and render more valuable any particular kind of animal, or the reverse.

The third clafs fhould include all thofe experiments that are intended to ascertain the peculiar qualities of different varieties of foils, fo as to diftinguish them with accuracy and precision from one another; and to determine the nature and distinguishing peculiarities of the different varieties of any one clafs of plants or fpecies of

the ftem as to admit of being taken out of the ground with the utmost ease: as a good large fpade is capable of lifting up the whole clufter at once. And finally, the old was an exceeding bad bearer, and therefore in general an unprofitable kind; but the new is very fertile, and the most profitable fort that has ever been known in that district.

Now let us fuppofe that the laft kind had been known many years ago, and univerfally cultivated in a diftant part of the country, where the first kind (now diftinguished by the name of the Scots white kidney potatoe) had never been heard of: and that an author in that country, contenting himself with announcing it by its general name of white kidney potatoe, should have given an account of the produce and profits of it, and defcribed the mode of culture that was found to fuit it well. Is it not evident, that the inhabitants of Scotland, who knew the firft kind of white kidney potatoe perfectly well, would have been entirely fatisfied that they understood the author? and finding that what he faid of it did not at all tally with their own experience, they would naturally have concluded, that he was either ignorant, or an impoftor. In a cafe of this kind, where both parties imagine they understand what is expreffed by the general terms, it never comes into their head either to give or to require an accurate circumftantial description that would prevent the poffibility of a mistake; nor is it perhaps poffible to do this, if they were defirous of it. Who does not perceive that circumftances of this kind may be the fource of much embarrafiment, and of great misunderstanding between different perfons?"

animals,

animals, fo that the farmer may in no cafe be in danger of confounding thefe together in practice or experiment. This relates to that fyftem of claffification, which I have already faid has hardly yet begun to be taken notice of in the fcience of agriculture.

The fourth clafs would confit of a fet of experiments not lefs effentially neceffary for the improvement of agriculture as an economical art than any of the former, although of a fecondary order to its advancement as a science, viz. those that relate to the facilitating any of the operations in agriculture by improvements in machinery, the proper diftribution of time and labour, with other cir cumftances of a fimilar nature, to which it highly imports the practical farmer minutely to attend.'

He now takes occafion to point out the peculiar advantages of an experimental farm, as under:

By an attentive confideration of thefe particulars it will appear that an experimental farm, although in fome refpects defective, would nevertheless be attended with the moft effential benefits to the Public; as there are fome experiments of the greatest utility which hardly admit of being perfectly afcertained unless it be by a public inftitution of this nature. Of this kind in a particular manner are all the experiments belonging to the firft clafs above enumerated, which require fo much attention, accuracy, time, and expence to bring them to a proper conclufion, as gives no room to hope that ever they will be fully afcertained unless it be by the aid of fuch a public inftitution. That the reader may be convinced of this fact, I shall beg leave to produce one cafe by way of example.

Let it, then, be required "to afcertain the peculiar qualities of any one kind of natural grafs, confidered as a food for each variety of animals that could be fed upon it; the most œconomical manner of rearing this grafs for any particular purpose, whether alone or mixed with other varieties of plants; the most advantageous method of confuming it, whether green or drys by cutting or by pafturing for every particular purpofe to which it could be applied; and its comparative value in every point of view in which it can be confidered, when contrafted with every other kind of plant that could be reared by the farmer?"

• When we contemplate the full import of this query, the field it opens appears to be fo immenfe, that the wearied mind, like a bewildered traveller in a boundless wafte, wanders over it without feeing any end of its labour, or knowing where it fhall find repofe. It would be in vain for me here to attempt to delineate all the circumftances that would require to be elucidated; but it is neceffary that I fhould condescend upon* [enumerate] a few.

The time that is required for obtaining abundance of feeds for the neceffary experiments is the firft circumftance that would probably baffle the efforts of a private individual. Let us fuppofe that he obtains as many feeds the first year as are fufficient to fow one fail of ground. A fecond year elapfes before he can reap any feeds from that. The third year he reaps the feeds. He fows them the fourth; which we will fuppofe are fufficient for five falls of ground. The fifth he sows other five falls with the produce of the first. The

• Scotticism.

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