708 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 12 



feeeorphips, and of every other means for instruc- 

 tion tiiat I shall advocate." 



Though fully maintaining the foregoing views 

 as to the ffencrai advantages of an agricultural 

 professorship, still it is proper to state an important 

 objection to such an institution being among the 

 earliest measures of aid to be adopted by the 

 state. In the present very defective state of ag- 

 riculture in Virginia, there is probably not a single 

 individual who is qualified to fill such a professor- 

 ship with credit and usefulness. Very little of 

 scientific agriculiure is known — and the best prac- 

 tical farmers, even if they were well qualified by 

 their scientific attainments, are too fully and profit- 

 ably engaged on their own farms to accept such a 

 post. It could not possibly be well filled at pre- 

 sent; and therefore this benefit to agriculture, great 

 and valuable as it would be under difi'erent circum- 

 stances, should not be attempted until other, and 

 more available and sure means, had been permit- 

 led to operate. 



Ji^xperimental Farms, or practical Schools, for 

 experimental agriculture. 



"Experimental farms, under proper direction, 

 would also serve a most valuable purpose lor in- 

 creasing general agricultural information. But it 

 would be a mistake, fatal to the object in view, if 

 such establishments were expected to present a 

 system of pattern husbandry, or even to yield any 

 clear pecuniary profit whatever. Such expecta- 

 tions would necessarily be disappointed— and thus 

 would cast discredit on the whole plan. Experi- 

 nients, if judiciously conducted, and accurately re- 

 ported, would be more efl'ectual than any other 

 means for conveying valuable information to the 

 agricultural community. They cannot be made 

 extensively by private individuals— for the plain 

 reason that they require too much expense of time, 

 labor, and^ money, and, in general, are attended 

 with loss, even when the results are most valuable 

 for the information they give. A fiarmer might lose 

 ^100 by making a series of experiments, of which 

 the results might yet be worth ^100,000 to the 

 community at large. Hence, it is in vain to hope 

 for such proceedings, unless induced and supported 

 by the funds of the community ; and it is foolish 

 to count on deriving direct and immediate profit 

 from experiments, whether conducted by public 

 bodies or private individuals. Vet this foolish 

 expectation is very ceneral— or at least it is com- 

 monly deemed sufficient ground to condemn and 

 ridicule any experiments as worthless, if their im- 

 mediate result is loss to the inquirine: and public- 

 spirited individual who instituted them. Yet who 

 ever counted on deriving direct pecuniary profit 

 from any course of experiments in chemistry or 

 natural philosophy'? And without many such 

 costly and losing experiments, the world Avould 

 not have obtained the benefits of the steam en- 

 gine, of the machinery for spinninii and weavjnff 

 cotton, the modern processes of I)leachin2 and 

 coloring, and hundreds of other improvements in 

 the arte. If judged by the test of profit, as usu- 

 ally applied to agricultural experiments, Watt and 

 Fulton, and Arkwright, would have been pro- 

 nounced mere llinciflil schemers, if not fools not 

 only because of the expense of their experiments 

 but perhaps because neither of them could brino- 

 "into operation the mechancal skill, and habiis oi' 



business, necessary to the highest pert"eetion and 

 greatest profit of their splendid discoveries." 



In the introduction to these numbers, there was 

 presented, as a general illustration of legislative 

 action and aid to agriculture, the manner in which 

 new practices could be profitably tried and taught. 

 The operation there described, as to silk culture, 

 would belong to the department now under con- 

 sideration ; and it would be but one, (though now 

 a very important one,) of the hundreds of doubt- 

 ful or untried subjects which might be fully and 

 correctly tested, and the value and worthlessness 

 clearly established on an experimental farm, so 

 as to instruct thousands of the result, who, with- 

 out such instruction, would incur all the loss, either 

 of neglecting to avail of a profitable practice, or 

 of pursuing an unprofitable one. 



An experimental farm would be an excellent 

 precursor of an agricultural professorship, and 

 would co-operate admirably with the professor- 

 ship, after one is properly established. Such a 

 farm then, in addition to its other more important 

 uses, would be a great out-of-doors laboratory and 

 apparatus for illustrating the scientific lectures of 

 the professor of agriculture. 



Though it never should be considered that an 

 institution for agricultural experiments is to be a 

 model or pattern fiirm lor general husbandry, or 

 lor any recrular system of operations, (which in- 

 deed would be subversive of its proper design and 

 greatest value,) and though loss, instead of profit, 

 on the whole, must be caused by any such course of" 

 experimenting — still some particular and impor- 

 tant experiments or new practices may be found 

 profitable fi-om the outset, and by their profits, may 

 help to sustain the cost of others. Thus, if the 

 state, on an experimental farm, had led and point- 

 ed out the way to the great improvements which 

 have recently been made in lower Virginia, by 

 the use of marl, it may be presumed, that all the 

 usual wastefulness of public works would not have 

 prevented that business proving highly profita- 

 ble to the institution, in a pecuniary point, though 

 in an inferior degree to the profits of private ad- 

 venturers. A state institution, if existing, might 

 have introduced this great improvement fifty years 

 earlier than it has been done by individual exer- 

 tion and risk ; and if such had been the case, the 

 commonwealth would now be twice as rich 

 and as populous as it is. But without count- 

 ing on new experiments being profitable to the 

 institution, and even if such directly profitable 

 exceptions to the general rule were to be alto- 

 gether wantinfiT, still the indirect and resulting 

 profits to the commonwealth would be suflicient 

 to make the most ample return lor all the cost and 

 loss incurred. 



'•It has often been recommended, and by high 

 authorities, that /)o/^ern, /arms should also be es- 

 tablished, to teach agriculture by example. This 

 we should strongly oppose — and for the reason that, 

 from necessity, what might be named a pattern 

 farm, would prove to be any thing but an exhibi- 

 tion of good and profitable husbandry. Instead of 

 attempting such an establishment, it would be 

 better to make use of, as an additional course of 

 practical instruction, the now existing farms of 

 many private individuals, which are truly patterns 

 of good and profitable management. Many such 

 farms might be named, deserving the character, in 

 various parts of Virginia. It is evident that no 



