106 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



many facts amasses a rich, store of actual, practical, thor 

 oughly-tested knowledge connected with his art. If a 

 writer, he is likely to give the results through the public 

 press ; but if not, they are entirely lost at his death, unless, 

 happily, the son succeeds the father, and happens to be im 

 bued with the same love of experiment. Even in the former 

 case, many of those who read his articles will not profit by 

 them; for, having no personal acquaintance with him, they 

 pass his writings by, as but the opinion of one unknown 

 farmer a man of like frailties of judgment with themselves. 

 At all events, his contributions to agricultural science are 

 not in their most valuable shape. But if the facts are gath 

 ered at our colleges, where the experiments carried out from 

 year to year are chronicled and tabulated systematically, we 

 shall, sooner or later, gather data that will be of immense 

 value. If the professor die to-morrow, the observations and 

 experiments are still carried forward by his successor. 



In the case of the private individual, such records do not 

 carry equal weight. To say nothing of the known fallibility 

 of human judgment, there is, quite frequently, a disposition 

 to suspect that the individual experimenter has some private 

 end, or pet theory, to advance. Very much less of this 

 feeling attaches to the work done, in the same direction, at 

 a public institution. There the observer is supposed to be 

 the servant of the people, and to be actuated by motives 

 entirely above suspicion ; and, hence, by virtue of his posi 

 tion, he can speak as one having authority. 



SUBJECTS FOR DEBATE IN CLUBS, ETC. 



While the local societies, founded solely on a social basis, 

 must have a wide and beneficial effect upon our State Boards 

 of Agriculture, this is not their only duty. The Granges 



