CHAPTER XII. 

 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL HUSBANDRY. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



A productive agriculture is founded upon observation. True as this assertion is, it is no 

 doubt equally true that many have been led into error and the practice of an unproductive 

 husbandry by observation also. This seeming paradox is easily explained. It arises from 

 having given importance to accidental phenomena, or those phenomena which are of little 

 or no consequence to the result. As an illustration of the correctness of this position I may 

 refer to the confidence which many agriculturists reposed in a special electrical influence, 

 which was supposed to promote the growth of vegetables, and which, by certain arrange- 

 ments of conductors and non-conductors of the fluid, gave force to the assimilative powers 

 of the plant. To follow up tbe idea, I may conceive that the general impression being 

 that electricity is an agent of great importance in tbe economy of the earth, and perhaps 

 of special importance too, in the organic kingdom, gave to the common mind a predis- 

 posing bias in its favor ; hence trivial and unimportant observations, unconnected with the 

 results, were seized upon as demonstrations of a principle. When, however, this notion 

 that electricity, specially applied to fields of growing vegetables, is subjected to another 

 class of observations it is found fallacious, notwithstanding its supporters appealed to facts 

 for the truth of their doctrine. This is but a single instance of an erroneous practice 

 founded upon observation. Without citing the numerous instances belonging to the same 

 class, I proceed to remark, that it is apparent that the most important of all acquirements 

 of the farmer, is to be able to distinguish between the accidental circumstances and those 

 which are essential to the result ; those which are important to the success of an experiment 

 and those which have no influence upon it. The inability to do this, and the inattention 

 which has been paid to it has given rise to most of the erroneous doctrines which have 

 been propagated in this and every other country. It is true that it is not always an easy 

 matter to do this ; but it is equally true that error propagated is not by any means due to 

 the difficulty, but rather to a hasty determination and an unwillingness to consider the 



