EXPERIMENTAL FARxMS AND STATIONS. 439 



on a system of experiments must be an ill-managed farm. 

 Besides, did there exist any difficulty in getting experiments 

 performed on the farms of this country? He did not know 

 one fitting subject for trial which they would not find 

 farmers ready and eager to put to the proof Nay, what 

 were the farms of many gentlemen present but experimental 

 farms, and of the best kind — farms where tillage was carried 

 into extensive effect, and where every beneficial improve- 

 ment would be adopted ? Our true experimental farm, 

 then, was the country ; and the way to get experiments 

 performed with effect was to attach our landed gentle^nen 

 to their conntjy houses, and to make onr tenantry enlight- 

 ened and prosperous. We were told that there were many 

 improvements yet to be made in agriculture. True, but 

 how were these desiderata to be supplied .-* Was it by a 

 numerous body like this establishing and carrying on a 

 farm ? Could we believe that on such a farm more was 

 likely to be done than by all the practical skill, enterprise, 

 and capital of the farmers of this country? In what respect 

 would such a farm be superior to others, either with respect 

 to more skilful cultivation, or the means of effecting useful 

 improvements .-' Who were to be the managers of such a 

 farm ? It could not be the Board of Directors. They, like 

 other gentlemen farmers, must resolve to farm by proxy, 

 and get a gentleman steward to manage their hopeful 

 concern. And where was a person to be found so superior 

 to others that he would make this farm of his a model for 

 all others, and effect improvements which had not yet been 

 made ? And, granting that a manager was at length to be 

 found, and duly installed, possessing all the qualifications 

 required, what account was he likely to give of his steward- 

 ship where humble matters of profit and loss were con- 

 cerned ? What kind of spectacle was their balance-sheet 

 likely to present when rent-day came ? After some further 

 remarks, tending to show that the one kind of farm 

 proposed would be a mere garden, and that the other would 

 be destructive to the funds of the Society, Professor Low 

 expressed his decided opinion against the adoption of such 

 a plan by the Society. 



