On promoting Useful Knowledge. 509 



enumerated by that great philosopher, this seems by far the 

 most important. What gives one man any real superiority 

 over another, but the knowledge he possesses ? What en- 

 ables some individuals, to produce abundant harvests, to 

 carry on a prosperous commerce, to establish successful 

 manufactures, to excel in mechanism, or any other useful 

 art, but the acquisition, and judicious application of that 

 knowledge in which others are deficient? 



That the power and prosperity of a country depend on 

 the diffusion of useful knowledge, can hardly be questioned ; 

 and there is probably no art, in which a variety of know- 

 ledge, is of more essential importance, than in that of agri- 

 culture. The extent of information necessary to bring it to 

 any thing like perfection, is far greater than is generally sup- 

 posed. To preserve the fertility of the soil ; to free it from 

 superfluous moisture; to cultivate it to the greatest ad- 

 vantage; to raise its productions at the least expense; to 

 procure the best instruments of husbandry; to select the 

 stock likely to be the most profitable ; to feed them in the 

 most judicious manner, and to bring them to the most ad- 

 vantageous markets ; to choose the plants best adapted for 

 the soil and climate, and the most likely to become profit- 

 able ; to secure the harvest, even in the most unpropitious 

 seasons ; to separate the grain from the straw with economy 

 and success; and to perform all the other operations of 

 agriculture, in a judicious manner, require an extent, and 

 variety of knowledge, greater than may, at first view, be 

 judged requisite, and indeed greater, than perhaps any other 

 art or science requires ( I<5 ). 



But though agricultural knowledge may be diffused over 

 a country, experience teaches that it cannot be usefully im- 

 proved, unless by comparing the various practices which 

 subsist in different parts of it. One district has been led to 

 pay a peculiar and successful attention to one branch of 

 husbandry, or, by a fortunate accident, some important dis- 

 covery has been made in it, while other districts excel in 

 other particulars of equal importance. Mutual benefit is 

 derived from the communication of such local practices. 

 Of this, the improved modes of draining by Elkington ; 

 the warping of land on the banks of the Humber; the 

 drilling of turnips and potatoes in the northern part of the 

 island ; and the more general use of the thrashing-mill, 

 and various other instruments of agricultural machinery, may 

 be cited as examples. 



