24 



spring, before planting on liis light land;, the trees do not 

 get sufficiently established in the ground before the dry 

 weather comes, and they thus, perhaps, suffijr and die for 

 lack of moisture. In like manner another, whose hot dry 

 land has a gravelly subsoil, reads an article by a grape 

 grower, whose land is cold with a hard pan underneath 

 it, on planting vines Avith an under drainage of cobble 

 stones in the dryest, warmest spot. He does so, and his 

 vines fail to grow, and yet it was very good advice for a 

 cold clay soil, though fjuite the opposite for a quick light 

 land, well underdrained. And so, many other similar 

 failures. Let it be remembered in making any experi- 

 ments, that climate, soil^ position and circtimstances of va- 

 rious kinds, must be taken into account as modifying the 

 result. It is from a neglect of these elements, that so 

 many failures occur in carrying out experiments ; — that 

 men come to such different and opposite opinions and re- 

 sults, and that so much undeserved odium is cast on book- 

 farming. But we should by no means on these accounts 

 refuse to make experiments,^ — for the only way to advance, 

 progress and improve upon the old is to try the new. Let 

 the farmer, then, seek continually to acquire information, 

 to get new ideas ; remembering that behind every thing 

 are those living creative ideas ; that out of them come 

 every new improvement, every great invention, every 

 grand and noble work. Thus are information, intelli- 

 gence, and thought necessary to all scientific, progressive 

 farming. And not less essential to any science are order 

 and method ; and there can be no good farming, no pro- 

 fitable farming, certainly no scientific farming, without 

 some system. There is yet, I fear, very little methodical 

 farming among us. Every thing is belter skelter. Con- 

 fusion, and not order, rules as yet almost every where, in 

 barn, field and orchard. Farmers too often go to work 

 Avithout laying down any exact plans, or making any cal- 



