FARMERS' REGISTER— FRAGMENT OF CONVERSATION. 



115 



1 2 



Brenn, Pater=BKEN]v, Mater. 



John Brenn. 



4 5 



Fran- Brenn et Uxor. 



Chas. Brenn et Uxor. Mary Brenn- 



14 



-Packer. 



9 10 11 12 13 

 Brenn. Brenn. Brenn. Brenn. Brenn. 



15 

 Packer. 



16 

 Packer. 



17 

 Packer. 



18 

 Packer. 



19 

 Packer. 



20 

 Packer. 



21 22 

 Packer. Packer. 



" I asked the governor how this last and most 

 widely-spreading branch arose? ' That,' said he, 

 ' was one of our overseer's doings. I warned him 

 against it, but he would do it. Brenn's daughter 

 became pregnant by a weaver named Packer, and 

 the overseer made him marry her ; and see what 

 the parish has got by it I — eight more mouths to 

 feed already, and eight more backs to find clothes 

 for.' 



" How many more paupers do you consider the 

 parish may receive from this said stock:" 



" Two or three score, perhaps." 



For the Farmers' Register. 



Fragment of Conversation. 



A. Pray, sir, what caused the embarrassments 

 of your former neighbor, and my old acquaintance 

 N r I always thought him very industrious, and 

 not addicted to expensive habits ; and was, there- 

 fore, much surprised to hear that so little of his 

 fine estate was left after paying his debts. 



B. Why, so he was industrious, and he spent 

 as little in his housekeeping and manner of living 

 as many prudent men of half his income. But 

 notwithstanding his industry, his increasing atten- 

 tion to his farm, and his frugal habits, (or what he 

 considered such,) he was ruined by his extrava- 

 gance in what you book-farmers are so fond of — 

 making experiments. He was never satisfied with 

 making his corn, or sowing his wheat, or putting 

 out his manure, or feeding and keeping his live 

 stock as other people did — and he kept changing 

 his plans, and losing by almost every change, until 

 if he had lived a few years longer, he would have 

 had nothing more to lose. 



A. Your explanation serves to increase my 

 surprise. It is very true, that as all agricultural 

 experiments are trials of new and doubtful prac- 

 tices, and made to establish facts, and not to make 



Erofit, it must be expected that they will generally 

 e more expensive than profitable, immediately. 

 But though N. might thus lose by his experiments 

 while making them, he ought to have gained after- 

 wards, by adapting his general practice to the 

 truths which he had proved by his experiments. 



B. Aye — it is easy to talk finely and give plau- 

 sible reasons for such doings ; but whoever takes 

 to making experiments, will be very apt to suffer 

 as poor N. did. 



A. But was he so obstinate as to adhere to a 

 practice after his experiment had shown that it 

 was wrong? If so, his experiments were made to 

 but little purpose. 



B. No, no. He was ready enough to give up 

 his notions as soon as they were tried in practice 

 and failed. But he was scarcely out of one losing 

 business, before he was over head in some other. 

 He was always about to reap wonderful profits 

 from some new scheme, which he rushed into as 

 far as his means allowed. When he first began 

 farming, he was full of making all his poor land 

 rich, off hand, by the directions out of his books 

 about clover and plaster. That scheme lasted 

 until he had thrown away perhaps ^500 in money 

 and labor, Avithout any return wortli naming. In. 

 the mean time he was buying at enormous prices, 

 English bulls and cows, and hogs and sheep, all 

 of which turned out as badly as the fields of clover 

 that they were to live upon. He afterwards built 

 an expensive mill, with works for various kinds of 

 machinery on an insufficient water course, expect- 

 ing to bring a plentiful supply by a canal from 

 another stream which was two miles distant. But 

 after digging the canal, the source of the water was 

 found to oe on a lower level than the mill ; and as 

 it could not run up hill, all the labor was lost. And 

 so he went on with experiments to the last. 



A. Now I begin to understand you ; and I differ 

 with you altogether in the use of your terms. If 

 such as these were the experiments that N. was in 

 the habit of making, I should say that he lost his 

 property not by makmg experimentSj but by not 

 making them. 



B. How is that? 



A. Why, it seems that he made no experiment 

 op a small scale to ascertain whether a practice 

 was correct, but at once went as fully into it, as if 

 he had already proved, and was certain of its value. 

 This course is in fact rejecting all the lights of 

 experiments as well as of experience, and instead 

 of them, taking as a guide every Avild and untried 

 speculation that can be conceived. But as you 

 feel so much contempt for book-farmers and their 

 experiments, tell me what guide do you follow, in 

 cultivating your land ? 



B. Why, my experience, and the experience of 

 my father and grand-iather ; and we have all pro- 

 fited by pursuing the same general practice. 



A. Well — experience (both according to the 

 dictionary cUid to common sense,) means simply 



