216 
The Present State of Aijricidturc 
But will not rough experiments, some may ask, answer most of 
the purposes for which field-trials are made? The same question 
is asked — the same thing, I jnay say, is believed — by some in 
regard to the chemical analysis of soils, manures and other 
matters connected with practical agriculture. With those who 
can ask such questions, it is out of place to reason. You inust 
impart to them first something like your own amount of know- 
ledge, or induce them to acquire it; and then they will, without 
reasoning, see things in your light. 
Have our pnst experimental researches then as a whole done 
no good? I would say they have all done good. Examples of 
good, in the form both of certain and of probable deductions, I 
have already mentioned. But even where no such deductions at 
all can be drawn from them, or with any degree of certainty, the 
labour spent on none of them has in my opinion been tin own away. 
Is it nothing to have called forth so much new thought in the ex- 
perimenter, in his assistants, and in the readers of his results ?— to 
have unparted a definite form and meaning to the idea of scientific 
farming — to have given birth to new habits of observation and 
more precise modes of reasoning among so many of the agricul- 
tural class — to have led large numbers of men to possess them- 
selves of booksj and to read what otherwise would never have 
interested them — to have induced, as I believe they have di- 
rectly or indirectly done, so manv intelligent farmers to become 
members of a society whose formidable motto is 'Science with 
Practice,' and to take the lead, in their own districts, in the ad- 
vancement of an art they were before unaware how materially 
they could assist in promoting? 
I have spoken of these experiments in a purely scientific sense, 
as supplying contributions to our stock of reliable facts, worthy of 
a place in our books, and fit to form foundations for safe opinions, 
f)r to be employed in testing opinions already in vogue. In this 
sense they are defective : and yet, even with a view to this point, 
they are not without their use. They have taught us how to 
work more correctly, and have called out and trained up men 
who are capable of performing experiments in future years as 
they ought to be made. In commencing a new method of re- 
search in any department of knowledge, we must first learn how 
to proceed with accuracy before we can make any certain pro- 
gress. And as this information can usually be obtained only by 
making actual trials, we must be content to fail many times while 
we are acquiring our experience. Lives may be well spent in 
this preliminary work, clearing the way for the rapid progress of 
our successors. How many long lives of ardent labour has gene- 
ral chemistry exacted from its cultivators in performing work now 
rejected and forgottexi ! The further we advance in every branch 
