TVool in Relation to Science with Practice. 
317 
ally suggestive : — " There should be no vain boasting that a 
lonopoly has been preserved in the heavier class of woollen 
oods. Time is fleeting, and changes are rapid in these ad- 
anced days ; and before competition waxes keen in these 
lational productions, it is wise to endeavour to estimate the 
|0sses we do suffer, and have suffered, from interlopers in other 
nstances, and to ascertain their causes, in order to apply the 
emedy, and arrest the injury we run the risk of sustaining. 
\.nd what is the remedy ? In one word, ' Education /' — education 
n natural and physical science." 
By Chance, the Divinity of the ignorant, we are still too mucli 
nfluenced ; by English farmers generally principles are not 
inderstood — their value is not appreciated : — " The agricultural 
mprovement in Germany is due to the same cause that during 
I century past has been raising Prussia from a comparativelj 
insignificant position to the first rank among the Powers of 
Europe, to wit, science and system. It is a spirit of careful 
jconomy, coupled with an understanding of the whys and where- 
fores of things. In agriculture it has manifested itself in the 
general diffusion of scientific knowledge among farmers, in the 
?stablishment of agricultural schools and experimental stations,, 
where science and practical experience are so combined as to 
make them of the highest service to the community." * 
Drjinitions. — Agriculture, an ancient, and until recently a 
Rule-of-Thumb Art, suffers from extreme looseness of definition : 
definition is the technical statement and explanation of the 
meaning of words. Every district has its own terms ; and un- 
fortunately writers on agriculture too often tender the first wordy 
small coin that comes to hand, never thinking whether or not it 
will pass elsewhere : we can only touch the fringe of this subject 
here : but it is to be hoped that something may be done, and that 
all writers will remember that agriculturally there is no reason why 
a literary coinage should not be put into circulation which would 
be gladly accepted by all the farmers of the English-speaking race. 
This extract from the 1871 Report is suggestive : — " Unfor- 
tunately, the number of the denominations of the lengths of yarn, 
'or the lengths of the skeins adopted in the different woollen 
districts, are as many as Aveeks in a year. To reduce these 
measurements into Yorkshire skeins per ' whartern ' would be 
as 'Greek 'to the West of England or Scotch foreman. This 
want of a common standard definition produces many hindrances 
to the general trade, and offers a fit subject for the consideration 
of our intelligent Chambers of Commerce." 
Premising that staple means any one lock of wool that natu- 
* ' Applied Science in Farming.' Professor Abwater, U.S.A. 
