264 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



trusive to be entirely disregarded, we spare no la- 

 bour nor pains to force them, as far as we po.s>il>ly 

 can, to support some previously-conceived notion 

 which our silly pride forbids us to abandon. This 

 obstacle to the progress of all improvement, but 

 especially in husbandry, is one of the most perni- 

 cious of our besetting sins ; and, but for this, it 

 seems to me impossible that any controversy should 

 still exist in regard to the best manner and state in 

 which to apply manures to land. Two or three 

 years, at farthest, would have been amply sufficient 

 to establish the most beneficial practice, if all those 

 whose special interest it is to ascertain it would 

 have diligently and impartially resorted to compara- 

 tive experiments, accurately and assiduously made 

 for the purpose, rather than to speculating and the- 

 orizing about it. But it can never be too late to 

 make such experiments. Let me, therefore, most 

 earnestly recommend to all who have doubts on the 

 subject, forthwith to commence making trials of the 

 different methods of applying manures, and also of 

 the different states in which it is best to apply it. 

 The opinions of experienced men are certainly well 

 worth consulting in regard to all matters connected 

 with their respective trades, professions, or callings ; 

 but we should never implicitly take them as guides 

 for our own practice any longer than until we can 

 have leisure to test their correctness by actual ex- 

 periments. When a number of these concur in pro- 

 ducing the same uniform result, it is matter of very 

 little comparative importance how others may en- 

 deavour to account for the fact, as the fact itself is 

 the all-important thing, especially in every practical 

 art. But this war between speculation and practice, 

 between nature's doings and our fanciful ways of 

 accounting for them, is destined, I fear, never to 

 cease so long as such a thing remains in the world 

 as pride of opinion. Let a man once commit him- 

 self so far (either in speaking or writing) as publicly 



