85 



and embellishment, without impairing at all the convenience, utility, 

 or permanence of their works, might have rendered them extremely 

 beautiful. In so doing they would have found in them a new and 

 prolific source of pleasure, may I not add also of improvement. 1 

 know their candor will pardon these suggestions which have no un- 

 kind origin ; and which have their foundation in the universal beauty 

 of the natural world, as seen every where and always even in the 

 perishable crystals of the frost, and the fading tints of the sky, in the 

 plumage of the birds, in the unrivalled splendors of the vegetable 

 world ; in a word in every production of the divine power and good- 

 ness from an atom floating in the sunbeam to a planet, wheeling its 

 course in the glittering arches of the skies. 



XI. EXPERIMENTS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 



I have already referred to the experiments made in the applica- 

 tion of lime and marl. They are not of a sufficiently extensive or 

 exact character to be deemed conclusive. It is hoped, as suggested 

 in the valuable report of the geological surveyor, that they will be 

 continued. There is no reason to doubt, from the long experience 

 of other countries, that in her lime and marls the county of Berk- 

 shire contains inexhaustible sources of productiveness and the means 

 of greatly improving her soils. 



The improvement of agriculture, as a science and an art, depends 

 greatly upon facts. Experiments, illustrating what can or what 

 cannot be done, are of great value. Farmers object to agricultural 

 experiments, as involving expenditures beyond their means ; but an 

 experiment on a small scale, within the means of the humblest farm- 

 er, may be as instructive and conclusive, in reference to the point 

 sought to be ascertained, as an experiment of an extended and ex- 

 pensive character. The point to be mainly insisted upon, and that, 

 in which farmers commonly fail, is exactness of observation. With- 

 out this, no experiment is of any value. In this matter I have been 

 so often disappointed, that my importunity will, I hope, be excused, 

 when I urge upon farmers attempting, or at all disposed to attempt. 



