ADDRESS. 



33 



was applied to the wrong soil ; the subsoiling was tried in 

 the wrong place ; the machine was handled in the Avrong 

 way, or had some loose screw. The pupil is deceived, 

 either by superficial instruction, charlatanry, or his own 

 haste; and so book-farming falls into contempt. Both are 

 wronn-, the instruction and the contempt. Let us see 



why. 



the main oversight of the recent efforts at improvement 

 has been a too hasty generalization, and a deficiency in 

 patient, painstaking, accurate records of experiment. A 

 few brilliant announcements have dazzled our eyes ; san- 

 guine lips have trumpeted abroad spurious maxims ; and 

 the o-olden age of great profits and easy times has been 

 heai^ knocking at the doors. Following the explosion of 

 this sophistry is apt to come a reaction of discouragement, 

 as unreasonable as the flattery. What the interests ^ of 

 your profession seem to me to be imperatively demanding 

 just now, therefore, will be two things : 1. The most rigid 

 and thorough experiment, as to every detail and particular 

 of every mode of tillage, eni'iching and renewing of lands, 

 breeding of stock, and new implements, taking into ac- 

 count all the most minute and variable conditions, data, 

 circumstances, attending that experiment : and 2. A faith- 

 ful, exact, and systematized registration of every such 

 experiment, including specific statements as to all the par- 

 ticulars alluded to. This is that second stage, following 

 the era of general discovery, which agricultural imi)rove- 

 ment has next to pass through ; a period of thorough 

 experiment, and scrupulous registration. Till we have 

 the tests and tables only thus 'to be furnished, we have 

 no rational induction, and of course no development of 

 principles that will give us a proper science. The more 

 extensive and diversified these experiments on a given 

 question are, throughout the country, the sounder your 

 basis for an induction. Then let these records, bearing 

 the stamp of more precision than is common in county 

 reports hitherto, duly and responsibly authenticated, be 

 brought together and collated by competent hands, — 

 and vou have got a body not of theories but of facts, — 

 5 



