20 Science with Practice. 
tion are annually imported, and when hundreds of tons of Osiers, 
in their natural state, are also brought from Germany and else- 
where, that Americans, proverbial for their industry, zeal, and 
independent spirit, should have thus long neglected to form plant- 
ations fully adequate for all the wants of our country. 
SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE. 
Farmers being only guided by experience, are seldom led to 
make any reflection upon the principles of their art; the know- 
ledge they have is for the most part historical, and is wide from 
the course of what they see. They sow grain in the earth, and 
when it is reaped and carried away they know the ground must 
rest, or be amended by some sort of manures. The seed grows, 
if the ground is good; but how does it grow? and in what de- 
gree or by what means, is this vegetation produced? This would 
be too much to ask of them, and the very question would be lost. 
They plant a tree as their fathers did before them; but would it 
not grow better if they were to follow some other method? 
"Would not nature work with more facility in her operations if 
by studying her laws, we were to take necessary preparations to 
ease her in her works? but their studies are not of that extent. 
They act agreeably to the practice they have seen, and the old 
beaten track they have been bred up in, stands them in lieu of 
reason. 
On the other hand, philosophers often want the experience of 
the farmer; many of them forge systems in the air, upon which 
they build abundance of specious reasonings, but have nothing 
solid in them, because they are not founded upon the true basis 
of natural knowledge, which is experience; it is therefo.e no 
wonder if many of these speculative systems fall into mistakes. 
We may compare them to enchanted castles, founded upon magic, 
which have nothing real in them, and vanish in smoke, in the 
very instant when we should admire their beauties. 
