232 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



EXPERIMENTS AMONG FARMERS. 



A great advantage would result to agriculture if every intel- 

 ligent farmer would pursue some systematic course of experi- 

 ments, on such a scale and variety as his circumstances 

 would justify, and give the results if successful, to the com- 

 munity. It is with experiments in farming, as was said by 

 Franklin, of a young man's owning wild lands ; "it is well 

 enough for every one to have some, if lie dont have too many" 

 They should be his servants, not his masters ; and if intelli- 

 gently managed and kept within due bounds, they may be 

 made greatly subservient to his own interest, and by their 

 promulgation, eminently promotive of the general good. It 

 is fully in accordance with another maxim of that wise head, 

 that when it is not within our power to return a favor to our 

 benefactor, it is our duty to confer one on the first necessi- 

 tous person we meet, and thus the circle of good offices will 

 pass round. The mutual communication of improvements of 

 any kind in agriculture, has the effect of benefiting not only 

 the community generally, but even the authors themselves ; 

 as they frequently elicit corrections and modifications which 

 materially enhance the value of the discovery. These ex- 

 periments should embrace the whole subject of American 

 agriculture ; soils and their amelioration ; manures of every 

 kind, alkaline, vegetable and putrescent, and their effects on 

 different soils and crops; plants of every variety, and their adap- 

 tation to different soils, under different circumstances and with 

 various manures ; and their relations to each other, both as 

 successors in rotation, their value for conversion into animals 

 and other forms, and their comparative utimate profit ; the 

 production of new varieties by hybridizing and otherwise ; 

 draining both surface and covered ; the improvement of im- 

 plements and mechanical operations, &c. &c. They should 

 also extend to the impartial and thorough trial of the different 

 breeds of all domestic animals, making ultimate profit to the 

 owner the sole test of their merits, crossing them in different 

 ways and under such general rules as experience has deter- 

 mined as proper to be observed ; their treatment, food, man- 

 agement, &c. Although much has been accomplished within 

 the last few years, the science and practice of agriculture 

 may yet be cosidered almost in in its infancy. There is an 

 unbounded field still open for exploration and research, in 

 which the efforts of persevering genius, may hereafter dis- 

 c over mines of immense value to the human family. 



