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Having attended very particularly to the fubje<2: 

 of agriculture for many years paft, I have obferved 

 with not lefs concern than amazement, the fmall 

 advances that have been made in this ufeful art, 

 when compared with that of other arts of lefs ge- 

 neral utility, and have endeavoured to inveftigate 

 the caufe of this phenomenon. I find it lefs diffi- 

 cult to difcover the caufe of this ftationary ftate of 

 our knowledge, than it is to remove the obftructions 

 that ftand in the way. Without entering here upon 

 the queftion at large, I fhall content myfelf with 

 obferving, that the length of time necefiary for 

 making an experiment in agriculture, and the dif- 

 ficulty of difcovering all the circumftances that 

 may vary its refuk, are among the chief caufes of 

 the fmall progrefs that has been made in this ufeful 

 and necefiary art. Man, impatient of delay, and 

 anxious to get forward, becomes tired of the fnail- 

 like progrefs he mud make if he were to fubmit all 

 his facts to the teft of experiment. To avoid that 

 tirefome progrefs, men in general have been willing 

 to admit experience as a mode of acquiring know- 

 ledge on this fubject, fufficiently accurate for all the 

 purpofes of life. Among practical farmers this is 

 fo much the cafe, that they rely entirely on experience 

 as an infallible guide, and condemn experiments as 



abfurd 



