Essay on Agriculiure as a Science. 263 



and carried into practice ? By no means ; — they must under- 

 go the test of experiment. Here the second department of the 

 agricultural school, as arranged by me, opens, and a new per- 

 sonage is introduced. 



The experimentalist should be carefid, patient, and diligent, 

 xvithout prejudices or even opinions on the subjects before him : 

 he is to make his experiments on the very smallest scale, so that 

 he can diversify them without expense, and without having any 

 interest in their success, — failure is to him exactly the same 

 thing ; as information is his sole object. 



This personage adopts the ideas, and if you please the whims 

 of the theorist, which he is not to presume to call Utopian — he 

 i;ives them a fair and patient trial under different circumstances, 

 and on a small scale. Shall he discover any thing, in the slightest 

 degree promising, he repeats, and varies his experiments, until 

 he satisfies himself, either that the measure is a vain one, or that 

 it deserves attention. In this latter case the experimentalist 

 makes his report to the agriculturists, recommends to them to 

 try the measure on a larger scale, and in actual practice. 



Even expense, ultimately so important, is not in an early stage 

 to stop proceedings; for the object immediately before the school 

 is to devise by what means the vegetable in their hands can be 

 brought to the highest degree of perfection and utility; — the ques- 

 tion of expense comes next ; this on his diminutive scale, is no- 

 thing to the exi)erinientalist, — but should it threaten to be 

 weighty, the ingeuuitv of all parties is now to be exerted to 

 find succedanea; and a knowledge of the subject being acquired, 

 measmes may be devised which will attain the object by more 

 accessible means. 



The third character in the drama is the practical agriculturist, 

 of whom I complain that he has taken upon himself the whole 

 three characters I mentioned : He treats the tlieorist with super- 

 cilious contempt, as presuming to obtrude his wild specidations 

 into a department of which he considers himself as complete 

 master. 



Hence improvements are discouraged, and discoveries that 

 might have proved useful are nipped in the bud. 



The second character I wish to introduce does not yet exist ; 

 whence it comes that discoveries vvhicVi have been forced into 

 attention rarely meet with a fair trial : they are encountered by 

 the practical farmer with prejudice, and even with jealousy; they 

 are considered as obtrusions; and treated as uninvited, unwel- 

 come strangers. 



It is some thirty years since Dr. Lettsom brought mangel wur- 

 zcl to England, and was strenuous in his exertions to teach the 



R 4 use 



