/ 



INTKODUCTIO^r. \. 23/ 



kuowiedge of these principles. Indeed, a life-long expei ienoe, 

 without the aid of the acquisitions of others, would fail to 

 arrive at it. Now, we know, that vast achievements have been 

 made in this direction. Long continued, extensive,, and careful 

 observation has established many facts, and discovered physi- 

 ological laws from which sQund principles have been deduced. 

 Others, no doubt, still lie hidden from us, so that what we do 

 not know, may far exceed tW aggregate of what we know, but 

 to ignore what has been\fixed''and acquired by laborious experi- 

 ment and observation, AVould be like setting sail upon a vast 

 and unknown ocean without chart or compass. Now these 

 facts of vital importance to the interests of Agriculture must 

 inevitably be lost unless Recorded,' land thus saved from ob- 

 livion, and Agricultural Literature has done this. 



A faithful record of an experiment in Agriculture, well 

 planned and carefully conducted, is a valuable addition to our 

 stock of knowledge, and contriioutes to the substantial progress 

 of the art. In this especially our modern agricultural literature 

 differs from the ancient. Tile agricultural literature of the 

 ancients, includiug that of Grreecd and Rome, extends over a 

 period of more than eight ceiituries. Jn literary merit and- in 

 social estimation it may have pxcelled lour ov^n, but it is some- 

 what remarkable that in all these eight hundred years, which 

 have transmitted to us maiiy volumes of great interest and 

 value relating to Agriculture, we seek; in vain for any sign of 

 real progress. We find a piactice liiat is careful, exact, and 

 saving, but it is the same, age after /age; no new imDleraents 

 are adopted, no old custon^ abandio|ied for better. We may 

 search every page, from Cato to Palladius, a period of nearly 

 five hundred years, but there is no (mention of auy improve- 

 ment in system or advance of any kind, and it is doubtful if the 

 whole of that long period added as much to the real productive 



