A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION. 401 



there will be foiiad one inau of such large distinctive habit 

 as to give him command over all. Let us cultivate the one 

 man, put trust in him, give him all advantage, where there is 

 a matter of nicety to be inquired into, and be assured that 

 men are not as plenty as states, who can do that work as well. 

 There is something so individual in all men as to make one 

 more knowing than all. To him some truth is revealed ; to 

 others other truths ; and no laying down of rules can reduce 

 or raise men to an equality. For this reason, it will not an- 

 swer to be too fine. In putting forth the essentials of an 

 agricultural inquiry, the larger outlines may remain, while 

 the nice details will be variable in every mind. To attempt 

 to confine anything so original as the human mind within the 

 precincts of another's devising, would be to restrict and en- 

 danger that freedom and courage which is one of the essen- 

 tials of discovery. 



It may be worth while to call to mind a sample of some 

 efforts at experimenting that are upon record. The latest 

 that has fallen under our notice is an experiment intended to 

 show the " Effect of Different Fertilizers on the Cultivation of 

 Lane's Imperial Sugar-Beet." * "The plat was laid out in rows, 

 two and one-half feet apart, and one hundred and nine in 

 length, each row containing about one square rod. The 

 fertilizer was sown in the line of the rows, and well raked in. 

 The ground was then marked in lines drawn at right angles 

 with the rows, and the seeds were sown at the point of inter- 

 section, and covered with the hand." The land " was a clay 

 loam, and had been fairly and evenly manured from the 

 stable." There were twenty-five rows ; five received no 

 application of the fertilizer; others from 1^ to 2|^ pounds of 

 special fertilizer to the row. The result is shown in weight 

 of beets, in pounds, per row. 



To inform us of the eflect of any fertilizer upon the crop, we 

 must know that without the fertilizer all the rows would have 

 produced the same weight of crop. The experiment assumes 

 that the various parts of the field are of a uniform quality, 

 and that any difference in the harvest is due wholly to the 

 fertilizer employed. Unfortunately for this assumption, the 

 rows which received nothing betrayed the unfitness of the 



* See Ann. Rep. of Maine State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts for 1872. 

 51 



