SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 249 



agricultural field which have already been surveyed, what an 

 extent of it still remains unexplored ! The science of agricultural 

 husbandry is no longer that confused congeries of incoherent 

 precepts which, for a long time, formed its fundamental structure. 

 Supported by chemistry and meteorology, it tends, by degrees, to 

 assume among the other sciences the high position to which it 

 is eminently entitled ; and its progress is marked by daily im- 

 provements. But the precepts of that science vary in their 

 application with the climate, the soil, and the different properties 

 of the plants themselves; so that methods of culture, though 

 based on uniform principles, are but the digested result of a series 

 of individual observations, made under the same climate, and in 

 various localities not only respecting drainage, tillage, planting, 

 &c., but also regarding the economical management of properties. 

 Hence the utility of agricultural societies, or at least of occasional 

 agricultural meetings, at which any member, possessing aught of 

 interest to communicate, may contribute his quota of information 

 to the general stock. But, unfortunately, the proceedings of our 

 planters are governed by egotistical individualism. Instead of 

 widening the circle of his observations, each individual seems 

 satisfied with contracting it within the bounds of the estate he 

 manages. Further still, many conceal from their nearest neigh- 

 bour their success, as well as their failures ; for, they are under 

 the impression that their knowledge is more enlarged, their 

 experience sounder, and their system superior : they even refrain 

 from friendly intercourse, lest they should be taken by surprise, 

 and thereby disclose some important secret of which each con- 

 ceives himself the sole possessor. But let those who imagine they 

 have little to learn from others, or believe themselves in posses- 

 sion of secrets, be at once undeceived ; for this is the sure 

 symptom of an ignorance blind to its own errors and defects, or 

 of a vanity which dreads being eclipsed by contact with a superior 

 intelligence. It is an undoubted fact that the most skilful, and 

 best informed, can, and do, derive profit from the experience of 

 others, even of the most ignorant. For, in agriculture, the field 

 of observation is unlimited, and what had escaped the attention of 

 the most superior mind, may have been remarked by one vastly 

 inferior in intellect ; or, that which was but superficially observed 

 by one individual, may have been profoundly examined by 

 another. 



