264 Essay on Agriculture as a Science. 



use and value of that excellent root : yet the English agriculturists, 

 though so fond of house feeding, let it slip through tlieir fingers; 

 find if, after a lapse of many years, tliey have at last become sen- 

 6ible of its value, it was owing to the strenuous interference of 

 iny amiable countrywoman, the marchioness of Salisbury: it is, 

 at least, to this noble agriculturist that vve owe the introduction 

 of this important vegetable into Ireland; and I am proud of 

 having been an active instrument under her ladyship, who was 

 Eo good as for years to supply me with seed. 



Sometimes, indeed, the practical farmer persuades himself 

 that he has assumed the character of the experiinentalist, and 

 tells us he has made the experiment ; — that is, he has cultivated 

 a field in a particular way. But it is not from solitary trials on 

 a great scale that information is to be obtained ; experiments lead 

 us to knowledge by comparison, — they should be multiplied and 

 diversified. 



Hence agriculture, as a science, is at a stand ; — the present 

 possessor of the field, j)erfectly satisfied with his own attainments, 

 and in high admiration of his own practices (often very good), 

 does not admit improvement to be necessary, and indignantly 

 rejects any innovation. 



He is encouraged in his contempt for theoretical speculations, 

 by the ridicule which a witty author throws on the agricultural 

 projectors of his day. 



It is just a century since Swift made a bitter attack on the 

 • Royal Society, which he describes as a set nf projectors, lately 

 incorporated hy royal patent. 



It is not for me to defend this respectable body: a century 

 has intervened since this wanton attack was made upon them, 

 and their merits or demerits are best appreciated by their inter- 

 mediate proceedings and transactions. 



My object in referring to the passage in Swift's Laputa, is to 

 throw light on the arrangement I have made in the agricultural 

 science, and to afford proof of its propriety. 



Swift says, " the professors contrive new rules and methods 

 of agriculture — new instruments and tools ; all the fruits of the 

 tnrth shall come to maturity, at whatever season we think fit to 

 choose, and increase an hundred-fold more than they do at pre- 

 sent." 



He states '' the result of all this to be, that none of these pro- 

 jects are yet brought to perfection, and in the meantime the whole 

 country Hes miserably waste; by all which, instead of being dis- 

 couraged, they are fifty times more bent on prosecuting their 

 schemes." 



Admitting this to be a fair account of the facts in Swift's day, 



(which 



