6 



restricted. ]ii most other industrial arts, experi- 

 ments may be almost indefinitely multiplied 

 within ordinary limits of time, and suljjeeted to 

 a series of rigid corrections, so that reliable 

 results may, in most cases, be readily obtained. 



Again : The isolated character of the farmer's 

 life must necessari' tend, in some measure, to 

 retard the prop' of his art, as compared with 

 those carried on in the populous centres of human 

 industry. In cities and towns, merchants and 

 manufacturers come in daily contact with one 

 another ; inquiry hence becomes stimulated, infor- 

 mation rapidly and widely diffused, experiences 

 compared ; and whatever may occur to affect the 

 interests of any particular branch of industry, 

 those who pursue it can meet without delay, and 

 take counsel in regard to their common welfare. 

 Farmers, from the nature of their pursuits, even 

 in this wonderful age of cheap and rapid inter- 

 communication, are necessarily cut off, more or 

 less, from each other, and can only come together 

 at infrequent intervals. It is noteworthy to re- 

 mark how comparatively rapid has been improve- 

 ment in agriculture, both in the old world and 

 the new, since the general introduction of the 

 railway, which, with other agencies, has been a 

 chief means of quickening the agiicultural mind. 



