advances toward bringing that art to perfection. But we are now convinced that very much is required to be done before the can with juftice lay claim to that honour.

As the progrefs of agriculture has been retarded by the want of proper experiments, Mr. Anderfon takes notice that fome who have wished well to her interefts have proposed to have that deficiency fupplied by inftituting, at the public expence, a national experimental farm, and putting it under the direction of a perfon properly qualified for the task. But this, he obferves, although it would be a most useful institution, could not alone fully accomplish the end proposed.

There is, fays he, a peculiarity attending difquifitions in agriculture that feems to have been hitherto entirely difregarded, although it has more powerfully retarded the progrefs of this art than any other circumstance whatever; that is, the difficulty, if not the impoffibility, of making different perfons fully comprehend the refult of any one experiment in agriculture, or exactly to understand the full import of any precept applied to this art *.

• For

Some readers may perhaps be at a lofs to understand the full import of the paragraph in the text to which this note refers, as few have had opportunities of remarking the peculiarities here alluded to. The followings facts are felected from a great many others of the fame kind by way of illuftrations:

Two foils not diftinguishable from one another in any obvious particular, but lying in different districts, were fallowed with equal care, and each dreffed with horn fhavings in the fame proportion: the one was rendered extremely fertile for many years following in confequence of that dreffing; the other field did not receive the smallest benefit from it.

Two other fields at a distance from one another, and not feemingly of very different qualities, were fallowed with equal care. One of them had been exhaufted by frequent crops of corn, fo as to be rendered almoft unfit for carrying grain of any fort; the other had been in grafs for fome years, and had only carried one crop to help to rot the fward. The first field, after the fallow, without any manure at all, was fowed, a part of it with oats, and another part with barley; both of them exceeding weighty crops. The other field alfo, without any manure, was fowed with oats, but hardly gave two returns of the feed.

Another field of a deep rich loamy foil, that had been in tillage for many years, and with the affiflance of frequently manuring it, had carried many good crops of oats and barley, was fallowed: got a good drefling of dung, and was fowed with wheat, A few grams fprung up, but foon turned fickly, and died away. It was fuffered to remain untouched till the month of July, but not one stalk of wheat ever again made its appearance. It was then turned down and prepared for another crop.

Another part of the fame field that had been limed about feven years before, and was dreffed in every other refpect alike with the part above mentioned, yielded a very good crop of wheat f

Another fi ld that appeared to be a good loam, of a tendency towards clay, and was imagined to be an exceeding rich and valuable foil by three skilful farmers who came at different times from different diftant parts of the country, was fallowed two years fucceffively; the fecond year it received a complete drefling of dung (upwards of fixty cart loads, as much as two fout horfes could draw, per acre), and was fowed with turnips drilled, and horfe-hoed :-a fine crop. Next year it was fowed with oats: produce about five boils (30 bushels) per acre. Next year it was fowed with oats (it was known that no other kind of grain would grow in it at all): produce hardly two bolls (12 bushels) per acre. It was then fallowed a fecond time:

See Elays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Vol. I. Efay vi, part 2.

$21.

For, as there is fuch an infinite diverfity of foils, and as thefe, may be fo much altered from their original ftate 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 these terms were employed to express.

In thefe circumftances, an experimenter, while he employs the very best terms his language affords, is by no means certain that any one of these terms will not convey a feparate idea to every reader that shall peruse 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 these 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 these foils, for the purpose of the farmer, is inconceivably great, fome of each clafs being as remarkable for their inexhaullible fertility, as others are for their infuperable fterility, although thefe are not perhaps diftinguishable 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 tib-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, hor 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 flate was not worth more than a filling per acre. Yet this was a foil that skilful 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.' REV, Aug. 1779. K 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? Precisely 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 difcovery of thofe leffer peculiarities above alluded to, fuch as record experiments, and defcribe 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 dif ferent 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 diftricts of that country, although no two kinds of the fame fpecies were known in any one of thefe diflricts. In thefe circumftances, 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 distinguished 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 inthat 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 diftri&t where cats alone were cultivated, the inhabitants of thofe diftri&ts 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 visionary only, but as an impoftor who pretended to have performed impoffibilities, and who endeavoured to lead the unwary into the most fhocking abfurdities of practice, and to buoy up the inexperienced youth with vain hopes that never could be realifed, and would therefore be outrageous in their clamours against him. It is thus that ignorance naturally infpi es confidence, and produces unmerited abufe. Need I draw the parallel between this cafe and that mentioned immediately before it? We need only to fubftitute the word foil instead of grain, and we ourfelves

4

burfelves become the nation defcribed above. Like that nation, we have only three different terms, fand, clay, and loam, for expreffing in our language all kinds of foils, each of them including under it many smaller 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 criticifms 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 abufes that fpring from fuck 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 imperfectnefs 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 express different kinds of grain, as wheat, barley, oats, peafe, beans, &c. but each of these 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 dif trict, 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 fo often at a lofs 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 neceflary 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 fuspect that what might be written of one of thefe 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 first called fimply the bire potatoe; but as other kinds of white potatoes came to be known, it was dif tinguished by the additional epi het, kidney: being long known by the name of ubite 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 first in shape, in colour, and in name, was extremely different in many of its moft effential qualities. The old was a viscous gluey bulb: the new was the drieft and most mealy potatoe that ever was known. The old fent its bulbs deep into the ground, which fraggled to a great distance from the ftem, fo that it required an uncommonly deep foil for rearing it; and a complete trenching was neceffery before it could be properly taken out of the ground: the bulbs of the new rife to the very futface of the ground, fo as to thrive upon a very thin foil, and rambie fo little from

K 2

Having, at confiderable length, illuftrated the neceffity of inventing fone 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 beft method of conducting the experiment belonging to each class, as follows:

When we take an extenfive 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 these 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 moft œconomical manner of rearing or of feeding any kind of useful animal, fo ás best to fit it for any particular purpofe: the ascertaining 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 those which relate to the culture of particular plants upon a given foil; the ascertaining 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 also 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 diftinguishing peculiarities of the different varieties of any one class of plants or fpecies of

the ftem as to admit of being taken out of the ground with the utmoft eafe: as a good large fpade is capable of lifting up the whole cluster 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 diftrict.

Now let us fuppofe that the last 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 potatce, should have given an account of the praduce 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 underland what is expreffed by the general terms, it never comes into their head either to give or to require an accurate circumftantial defcription that would prevent the poflibility 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 embarrasiment, and of great mifunderftanding between different perfons?'

animals,