8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



twilight and eluding our most earnest efforts to secure bcr in 

 our grasp and fix her habitation. 



I have read nothing more interesting in illustration of the 

 hazard of drawing too hasty a conclusion from our experiments, 

 than the valuable records of the Board of Agriculture, of the 

 experiments made under their supervision at the State Farm. 

 If the results of these should be nothing more than the impress- 

 ing of the public mind with the number of conditions which 

 enter into a reliable experiment, they will have performed a 

 great service. To follow, with complete success, the steps of a 

 successful experimenter, I should want to ask him a great 

 many questions : What is the character, composition and con- 

 dition of the sub-soil ? The depth of the upper soil ? The 

 mechanical condition of it ? The chemical constituents of it ? 

 Its digestible constituents (for what are not in digestible con- 

 dition arc of but little moment) ? What is the lay of the 

 land ? What manure was applied the two years previous, and 

 what crops were raised upon it ? What manure was applied 

 the year of the experiment, and what was the condition of the 

 manure ? Upon what had the cattle been fed ? If barn 

 manure, how had the manure been kept? Was it fresh or 

 partly fermented, and how was it applied ? How wet was the 

 season, and how hot was it all through the growing portion of 

 it ? These and many other questions must be answered before 

 I can feel myself on the road to complete success ; and not only 

 must they be correctly answered, but the information obtained, 

 correctly applied to my own soil. 



Before leaving the contributors to our agricultural press, 

 there is one class of whom I would say a word : I mean that 

 class of contributors, many of whom farm largely but are not 

 farmers ; a class who have a strong natural interest in agri- 

 culture, but whose callings in life lead their feet in a way their 

 hearts go not. Articles from this class, from the results of 

 superior educational advantages, and from the fact that stand- 

 ing outside they may survey a larger field, arc sometimes better 

 written than those by the practical farmer, who may excel in 

 point what he lacks in finish. Articles by this class arc often 

 characterized by an clastic enthusiasm, if not fine poetic glow 

 which catches the very spirit of nature. On the other hand, 

 they are sometimes characterized by a defect which will always 



