154 On the Aj^ipUcatmi 



derived from the establishment, under proper management, of an 

 Experimental Farm — not that I would discourage the great body 

 of farmers from making such experiments as they may feel them- 

 selves equal to, or deny the necessity of repeating the same ope- 

 rations on various kinds of land before their advantage can be 

 regarded as sufficiently tested; but that I conceive there are many 

 trains of research which will never be attempted, or, if attempted, 

 will never be successfully carried out, without such an auxiliary. 



The foundation indeed of an experimental farm, under the 

 auspices of this Society, or of more than one, if the zeal of the 

 leading agriculturists could be sufficiently awakened to raise the 

 requisite funds, has been long and anxiously desired by many 

 persons of great practical experience in agricultural matters ;"^' and 

 I cannot but think that if each of them were conducted by an ex- 

 perienced supervisor, who should be expected to carry into effect 

 the views and suggestions of such men of science as may have 

 directed their attention to the theory of agriculture, those deficient 

 links would shortly be supplied, which, even if considered in 

 themselves unimportant, are nevertheless necessary parts of the 

 chain which serves to connect our theory with our practice. 



If in juxtaposition with each of these establishments on which 

 new methods of culture were tried, and the precise operation of 

 the various manures worked out, there was founded a model or 

 example farm for exhibiting the most approved system of hus- 

 bandry now in use, every discovery that should be announced 

 as having been brought to light at the former might undergo the 

 further test of being repeated at the latter, before it received the 

 iinal impress of the Society's sanction. 



And let it not be supposed that either the model-farms which 

 are already instituted, or which may hereafter be set on foot 

 under the auspices of any public Body, such, for instance, as the 

 Society I am now addressing, could supersede or take the place 

 of one designed for agricultural experiments. 



Since a model-farm, in order to serve as an example to the 

 neighbourhood, must be conducted with a view to profit, all new 

 schemes of cultivation which do not carry with them on their very 

 face a reasonable probability of advantage must be necessarily 

 rejected ; and yet, where the object is one of national and not of 

 individual gain, the discovery of a single new fact would compen- 

 sate for a hundred unsuccessful trials. If experiments are divided 

 into those which produce fruit, and those which elicit light, it is 



* I may instance, in particular, Sir Francis Mackenzie of Gairloch, Bart., 

 who has been urgent in his solicitations, first to the Highland Society, and 

 since, as I understand, to the Royal Agricultnral Society of England, to 

 establish Experimental Farms in both countries. 



