CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTING. 323 



any benefit at all. Therefore I come to the conclusion that plaster 

 on that kind of soil is not beneficial, and I do not use it. 



Now, sir, I think that we farmers, while we are waiting for the 

 results of experiments from the professors at the Agricultural 

 College and from other sources, had better be doing a little in this 

 matter. Even if we do not do it so accurately or scientifically as 

 may be desirable, and perhaps add little or nothing to the science 

 of agriculture by doing it, we may perhaps put some money in 

 our pockets. Therefore I suggest to the farmers in this Conven- 

 tion, that we should, with the time and means we have, be doing 

 a little round the edges, if we do not go into the bowels of the 

 matter. 



Question. How much plaster do you apply to stiff, heavy soils, 

 and how frequently ? 



Mr. ScAMMAN. About three bushels to the acre, every third or 

 fourth year. 



Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. I listened with very great pleasure to 

 the lecture of Prof. Goodale, and he made me feel most sensibly 

 how little I knew about the subject which has brought us to- 

 gether ; and yet it is an art to which I have given attention during 

 my whole life ; it is one to which, if I was so situated, I would 

 like to devote my whole time. Agriculture is the most important 

 of all the arts, and it may be truly said, we know scientifically 

 the least of it. I agree with my friend over the way (Mr. Scam- 

 man) that we have not the means or the leisure to apply science 

 to agriculture, and get results which are as satisfactory and 'cer- 

 tain as science, and yet we need it. We must depend, to a very 

 great degree, upon other sources for accurate experiments, which 

 we cannot expect to be performed by common farmers. One of 

 the first things to be done, therefore, is to strengthen and encour- 

 age by every means in our power the agricultural institution which 

 we have founded here in our immediate neighborhood. 



There are two kinds of experiments which may be most properly 

 made, and each will contribute in aid of the other. Certain 

 scientific experiments, in which all the conditions of the seed, the 

 climate, the soil, and everything which shall make the results as 

 certain as science, are to be made ; and then there are to go along 

 in aid of these that which all of us can do to a certain extent — 

 practical experiments, which will not be so accurate as those 

 which will be embraced in the first class, for we can, at best, have 

 but few who will be able to apply scientific principles, in a satis- 



