DECEMBEtt. 593 



a greater reproach to a merchant, short of actual 

 bankruptcy. 



But agriculture is destined to be, in all its detail, 

 an exception to every thing else. Men engage in it 

 without previous education, or even study and in- 

 quiry, and they conduct large concerns in it without 

 those accompts known to be necessary in every other 

 pursuit. With the lowest and most uneducated far- 

 mers this is pardonable ; but what excuse have gen- 

 tlemen for such conduct ? 



It should be remembered, that experimental agri- 

 culture, or even those ideas more or less detailed 

 which we meet with in conversation, must depend for 

 their justness very much on accuracy of accompts. 

 For a supposition deduced from general observation 

 on a farm, and grossly conceived, must fall exceed- 

 ingly short for correctness, of the regular detail of 

 exact accompts. 



The general fact is, however, admitted ; and ac- 

 cordingly it is common to hear gentlemen speak of 

 their accompts. But, unfortunately, they are usually 

 kept in such a manner as to prove rather the means 

 of fortifying prejudices, than removing errors : all 

 those questions of nicety, where the contrasts are 

 not exceedingly strong, relative to the comparative 

 profit of different soils, of different courses, of diffe- 

 rent applications of the same soil, of different modes 

 of culture, &c. depend on accompts. Keep your 

 accompts in the mode of one man, grass is more 

 profitable than tillage; keep them in a different 



a q method, 



