308 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



PLYMOUTH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



On Wednesday, 3d October last, the Plymouth County Agri- 

 cultural Society held their annual show, at Bridgewater. The 

 address before the society, was delivered by Increase S. Smith, 

 Esq., of Dorchester. 



On Improvements. 



Many practical farmers take, as their surest guides in new 

 processes, the results of experiments. This is well, when it 

 leads to no wrong views of the importance and uses of theory. 

 The confinement of attention exclusively to practices estab- 

 lished by custom, would place an effectual obstacle to the 

 progress of improvement. With a numerous class of farmers, 

 there is danger of falling into these confined views, and conse- 

 quently, neglect in the employment of necessary means of 

 advancement. The deductions of scientific research do some- 

 times disappoint, in their application to practice. It must be 

 so, because some of the laws of vegetable life are beyond hu- 

 man reach ; and hence the foundation of the cautions so often 

 given, not to practice extensively on any theory, till its correct- 

 ness has been proved in experience. If science will not, at 

 once and with certainty, teach what to do, — if the lessons of it 

 must be subjected to the test of experience, — the conclusion is 

 easily formed, that it is of little or no importance in the art of 

 agriculture ; that we may as well proceed without its lessons, as 

 labor in the attainment of them. These conclusions would not 

 be less unjust, than denunciations of theory in other occupa- 

 tions. Take, for illustration, the medical art : let the physician 

 practice exclusively on theory, without any regard to the results 



