262 Esiay on AgricuUure as a Science. 



manner, those parts of my papers which have been thought cen- 

 surable by Mr. De Luc, I cannot omit acknowledging the grati- 

 fication I have derived from his approbation of the other parts ; 

 and the more particularlv as his principal objections to my state- 

 ments, those which he thinks supported bv his own experiments, 

 appear to me to have arisen from his braving misunderstood the 

 purport of what I have written. I beg leave to express the very 

 high consideration and respect I have for him, and 

 I am, sir, 



Your obliged and faithful servant, 



J. D. Maycock, M.D. 



LIII. Essay on Agriculture, as a Science, subdivided into se- 

 parate Departments. By W. Richardson, D.D. 



X. HAVE often lamented that agricvilture, far from being consi- 

 dered as a science, and treated as such, was reduced merely to a 

 measure of practice, ai;d left in the hands of persons little quali- 

 fied to advance the theoretical knowledge of this useful branch 

 of learning, and little disposed to improve its practice, bv chan- 

 ging the usages to which they were most obstinately attached, 

 or even to admit that their practices were capable of receiving 

 improvement. 



This earliest, and most necessary of all sciences, ought, as I 

 think, to be considered as consisting of three separate depart- 

 ments, distinct from each other ; the theoretical — the experi- 

 mental — and the practical. 



The first and second are at present quite absorbed bv the 

 third, without any prospect of emerging in their proper and di- 

 stinct characters, 



I shall endeavour to describe the qualities which I conceive 

 the dormant personages representing these several departments 

 ought to possess, and their respective offices. 



The theorist should be well acquainted with natural history 

 in general, as well as with that of the several vegetables we are 

 used to cultivate for our own consumption or that of our do- 

 mestic animals ; — their habits, their properties — their seasons 

 of attaining perfection. — He watches the process of Nature w-ith 

 attention, and combines his general observations with those he 

 has made on the particularities of each separate vegetable, and 

 then speculates, a priori, on the modes of culture best suited to 

 them ; and the soils best adapted to them, and likely to make 

 them bring forward their produce in the greatest abundance and 

 highest perfection. 



Arc the suggestions of the theorist to be immediately adopted 



and 



