3 



before the school is to devise, by what means the vegetable 

 in their hands can be brought to the highest degree of 

 perfection and iitihty : the question of expence comes 

 next; this, on his diminutive scale, is nothing to the 

 experimentalist, — but should it threaten to be weighty, 

 the ingenuity of all parties is now to be exerted, to find 

 succedanea; and a knowledge of the subject being acquired, 

 measures may be devised, which will attain the object by 

 more accessible means. 



The third character in the drama is the PRACTICAL 

 AGRICULTURIST, of whom I complain that he has taken 

 upon himself the whole three characters I mentioned : he 

 treats the theorist with supercilious contempt, as presuming 

 to obtrude his wild speculations into a department of which 

 he considers himself as complete master. 



Hence improvements are discouraged, and discoveries 

 that might have proved useful, are nipped in the bud. 



The second character I wish to introduce, does not yet 

 exist ; whence it comes, that discoveries which have been 

 forced into attention, rarely meet with a fair trial ; they 

 are encountered by the practical farmer with prejudice, 

 and even with jealousy. They are considered as obtru- 

 sions ; and treated as uninvited, unwelcome strangers. 



Sometimes, indeed, the practical farmer persuades him- 

 self, that he has assumed the character of the exj^erimen' 

 talistj and tells us he has made the experiment ; — that is, 

 he has cultivated a field in a particular way : but it is not 

 from solitary trials on a great scale, that information is to 

 be obtained; experiments lead us to knowledge by compa- 

 rison ; they should be multiplied and diversified. 



Hence agriculture, as a science, is at a stand : — the 

 present possessor of the field, perfectly satisfied with his 

 own attainments, and in high admiration of his own 



