PROFITABLE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS. 81 



It must be the interest of every rent-paying farmer to make 

 his farm-yard manure go farther, and to aid its action by ad- 

 mixtures such as those above described, the results of which were 

 so profitable to Mr Fleming. If so, it must also be his interest 

 to make experimental trials, by which the admixtures best suited 

 to the soil he cultivates, the crops he grows, and the yard-manure 

 he prepares or manufactures, are alone to be discovered. 



In regard to experimental top-dressings upon young crops, 

 in addition to ordinary manure, the testimony of a practical 

 farmer who has made many experiments, (Mr Alexander J. 

 Main, of Whitehill, Mid-Lothian,) is also deserving of the atten- 

 tion of my readers. " Looking at the results of experiment," he 

 says, " I am entitled to conclude that, on the whole, the larger 

 the outlay on a top-dressing, judiciously managed, the greater 

 and more profitable the results." * It is not impossible, therefore, 

 to unite the immediate profit, which the farmer has a right to 

 look for, with the more generally useful experimental inquiries 

 which the scientific agriculturist desires to undertake. 



* Transactions of the Highland Society, March 1849, p. 495. 



