

PAST EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS. 5 



Such a procedure will benefit agriculture, not merely by sug- 

 gesting to individual cultivators what may prove interesting 

 and instructive additions to the ordinary labours of the farm, 

 but also by putting into the hands of agricultural societies now 

 so often at a loss for subjects of intellectual interest to which the 

 attention of their members may be drawn, or for which pre- 

 miums may be offered an almost boundless field of inquiries, 

 upon which their labours may year after year be beneficially 

 expended ; inquiries, each of which will tend to awaken thought 

 and excite discussion, while they are of a kind, also, upon which 

 the least cunning in agriculture will not venture to cast ridicule. 



Some years ago, the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland began to offer premiums for experiments in the field, 

 founded on the suggestions contained in the appendix to the 

 first edition of my published Lectures* The Koyal Agricultural 

 Society of England also took up the same subject, though less 

 warmly than the Highland Society, and still more limited 

 exertions in the same walk have been made by many provincial 

 societies. These premiums caused many persons to undertake 

 such experimental inquiries, many competitors appeared for the 

 prizes which were offered, and a large body of valuable results 

 has from time to time been published, especially in the Trans- 

 actions of the Scottish Society. 



But, with the award of the premiums and the publication of 

 the results, the labours of the Societies have ended. The ex- 

 periments and their results have never been criticised, compared, 

 or digested, -their merits or defects carefully and candidly pointed 

 out, the purposes for which they were made, weighed against 

 the information they yielded, the rubbish they presented, sepa- 

 rated from the useful matter they contained, and the steps dis- 

 tinctly pointed out which ought next to be taken, in order to 

 secure a further advance. 



These things it is my wish to do to some extent in the present 

 work. The suggestion of such a union between theoretical 

 science and field experiment, with a view to the more secure 

 and rapid progress of agriculture, originated very much with 

 myself; and I feel bound, in so far as my knowledge and leisure 

 * Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, Blackwood : 1844. 



