8 THE PRINCIPLES OF 



be for homo consumption. Similarly the treatment of dairy 

 stock and of sheep, as well as of other animals, are all 

 underlaid by principles or rules which are accepted by 

 all good agriculturists. These principles and these rules 

 which guide us in the conduct of successful farming business 

 are capable of enunciation, and fall properly within the 

 domain of the Professor of Agriculture, and as certainly fall 

 outside that of the chemist or the biologist. 



The statistical and economical aspects of agriculture ought 

 not to be neglected, and, as already stated, agriculture fre- 

 quently appears rather in the light of a statistical subject 

 than of any other. 



The subject of rotations of crops is one which might well 

 occupy an agricultural class for weeks. Questions upon 

 rotations are as a rule either shirked or treated without the 

 least judgment. There is no appreciation of the fact that 

 our various crops are suited to different conditions of soil and 

 climate. It is very usual to see " roots " put down as the 

 commencing crop of a series either for light or for heavy land, 

 the candidate apparently having no idea that under the term 

 " roots " a large number of crops may be ranged, and that such 

 leafy crops as rape, cabbage, kale, kohl, may be introduced as 

 helps or as substitutes to such crops in particular conditions of soil. 



The knowledge of a candidate is shown by the kind of crop 

 he suggests as suitable for a clay, a sand, a peat, or a lime- 

 stone soil, and to get rid of the subject by using the term 

 "roots " is as disappointing as if he were to use the expression 

 " corn " without specifying whether he meant wheat, barley, 

 oats, or rye. 



The designing, and the considerations which should weigh 

 in the designing, of farm buildings for the accommodation of 

 our animals falls quite as much within the domain of agri- 

 cultural teaching and agricultural theory as does the minute 

 composition of the soil, or of the ash of plants. A knowledge 



