38 TRAXSACTIOXS. 



non-compliance with the rules of the committees in refer- 

 ence to accurate returns. One reason, I suppose, is, that 

 a farmer begins the season with no idea of competing, and 

 therefore keeps no record ; but unexpectedly finding 

 Nature has favored him with a remarkable product, he 

 takes it to exhibition, hoping his blunder will not forfeit 

 his chance. This suggests whether it would not be well 

 worth while, not only to withhold the premium on ac- 

 count of the omission, but to establish a separate prize for 

 the best method and most accurate specimen, in reporting 

 the whole internal history and transactions of the hus- 

 bandry of the year. 



What the school house is saying to the farmer, there- 

 fore, as the voice of the age in behalf of his science, is : 

 While you are never to be afraid to think, and never to 

 stop that study which is both the pabulum and gymna- 

 sium of the thinking faculty, — be specially true to this 

 second stage of agricultural advancement, — the stage of 

 patient, various experiment, and exact registration. Hold 

 up steady lights over your own path, and your children's. 

 Remember the distinction between theory and science. 

 Theory infers from a single fact, or a few facts, and fills 

 out the deficit with a guess. Science requires a broader 

 base for its induction, and facts enough to justify the af- 

 firmation of a law. What we want to come at, in Nature, 

 are her laws, not stopping with sporadic and fragmentary 

 phenomena. What we want of the separate phenomena, 

 is to marshal and compare them, and so make them ancil- 

 lary to conclusions. Interrogate Nature, then. Besiege 

 her with all manner of curiosity. Pound, and push, and 

 caress, and entreat, and importune her, till you wrench 

 her secret from her bosom. It is to incite our faculties, 

 that obscurity veils so many of her treasures. 



To this end, that he may be his own professor, scholar, 

 secretary, and reporter, let every farmer have as complete 

 an apparatus as he can afibrd, for conducting his examina- 

 tions, and nice admeasurements. Then let him enter his 

 daily record, with special respect for arithmetic. Let him 

 keep a running debt and credit account with every acre of 



