IGNORANT PRACTICAL MEN. 239 



the very same plans as himself, only without attaining so 

 favourable a result. Our ignorant practical husband- 

 man starts upon the assumption that all fields are the 

 same in condition as his own, and that, therefore, the 

 same system which answers on his farm ought to do 

 equally well on every other ; that the manure which he 

 finds useful ought to be equally useful to others ; that 

 the deficiencies in his field are the same in all other 

 fields ; that what he exports from his land, others ex- 

 port from theirs ; and what he is called upon to restore 

 to his soil, others are equally called upon to restore to 

 theirs. 



Although he knows next to nothing of the condition 

 of his own land, with which it would, indeed, require 

 many years of careful observation to become familiar, 

 and is most profoundly ignorant about the condition of 

 the land in any other part ; although he never has troub- 

 led himself with reflecting upon the causes of his suc- 

 cess in the cultivation of his fields, and is quite aware 

 that the advice of agriculturists from other parts, 

 respecting manuring, rotation of crops, and the general 

 treatment of his own land, is not of the slightest use to 

 him, because, as he has found, if is not at all applicable 

 to his district ; yet all this does not prevent him from 

 wanting to instruct others, and persuade them that his 

 system is the only true one, and that they need only do 

 as he does to obtain equally favourable results. 



The foundation of all such views is a total miscon- 

 ception of the nature of the soil, the condition and com- 

 position of which present an infinite variety of shades. 



The fact that many fields that happen to be rich in 

 silicates, and in lime, potash, and magnesia, are, by the 

 growth of corn upon the common farm-yard manuring 

 system, drained only of phosphoric acid and nitrogen, 

 and that the farmer need only look to the replacement 

 of these matters without troubling his mind about the 

 rest, has already been fully discussed. This fact no one 

 can dispute : but it is utterly inadmissible to apply it 

 to the case of other fields, and to make other farmers be- 

 lieve that they, too, need not trouble their minds about 



