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appreciative concern for the writings and deductions of 

 Messrs. Liebig and Norton, Hitchcock, Jackson and Har- 

 ris, in their studies and laboratories. An exhibition is 

 opened to some purpose, if an emulation is provoked by it 

 that sends every man home from cattle-show, determined 

 that he will be a master on his acres, and not a plantation 

 slave driven by the whip and gong of those two tyrannical 

 overseers, necessity and routine, — an original creator by 

 his mind, and not the mere manual drudge of habit. 



But something else is needed besides this wakening of 

 ambition. It cannot be denied that the large accessions 

 recently made to agricultural knowledge, fail sometimes 

 to secure confidence and adoption among practical men, 

 from a cause more legitimate and a little more reputable 

 then sheer stupidity. A distrust has been created towards 

 the recommendations of professedly scientific authorities, 

 by a plain contradiction between the theory and the trial. 

 You are told, perhaps, with an air of dogmatic assurance, 

 by some book or lecturer, that by a certain tillage you may 

 be sure of gathering eighty bushels of Indian corn, from 

 an acre of your ground. You comply with the conditions, 

 but gather only forty bushels of the corn. Your weekly 

 agricultural paper extols poudrette, and advertises for 

 the dealer. You send the money, and get the article, 

 but not the expected profit. A theory advises you that if 

 you will put in a subsoil plough, you will double your 

 harvest. You try it, and harvest less than last year. The 

 Agricultural Society recommends a new mowing-machine ; 

 you pay for it ; it does not work, and lies rusting, an ugly 

 eyesore, in the shed. These are very common experiences 

 in all parts of the country. In each case, there is partial 

 information, which is one form of falsehood. The dressing 

 was applied to the wrong soil ; the subsoiling was tried in 

 the wrong place ; the machine was handled in the wrong 

 way, or had some loose screw. The pupil is deceived, 



