ECOXOMV OF AGRICULTURE. L29 



THE ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURE. 



A Prize Essay, from the Transactions of the Hampsliire Society, 1853. 



1! Y L . HETUEKELI, 



The word economy, at the present day, lias a great variety 

 of applications. The ancient Greeks used it only with refer- 

 ence to domestic affairs, never applying it to agriculture as 

 now employed, but using the word gcopouks whenever speaking 

 of what related to the tillage of the earth. From the word 

 husband, which means a farmer, or cultivator of the soil, is 

 derived husbandry, which signifies the business of a farmer, or 

 of one engaged in agriculture; so that all that is contained in 

 the expression, "economy of agriculture," is imbodicd, or 

 nearly so, in that good old Saxon household word, •• husbandry," 

 which is perfectly familiar to all whose mother tongue is the 

 Anglo-Saxon. 



Knowledge gives power to those who enter into partnership 

 with Nature for the purpose of multiplying those products upon 

 which man must subsist while a denizen of earth. Such knowl- 

 edge as is derived from experience and observation is unlike 

 that which is obtained from theory predicated of hypothesis, 

 founded upon speculation. Theory is only valuable when 

 founded on inferences drawn from principles established upon 

 facts derived from experience and careful observation in the 

 laboratory of Nature. Theory, in this sense, is true science, 

 which is to know — or, in a more general sense, certain knowl- 

 , comprehending such facts and truths as will enable even 

 a novice to practise the art with a good degree of success. 

 Theory, in any other sense, is science, falsely so called. Thou- 

 sands, after having seen the end and folly of hypothetical theo- 

 ries, arc led to denounce all theory; which is about as wi 

 it would be to refuse all coin because of the equally well-known 

 fact that there is counterfeit coin in circulation. Such show 



