26 
to be the discovery of improved methods of cul- 
tivation. But to this end, general scientific prin- 
ciples and practical knowledge are alike necessary. 
The germs of discovery are often found in rational 
speculations ; and industry is never so efficacious 
as when assisted by science. 
It is from the higher classes of the community, 
from the proprietors of land ; those who are fitted 
by their education to form enlightened plans, and 
by their fortunes to carry such plans into execu- 
tion; it is from these that the principles of im- 
provement must flow to the labouring classes of 
the community ; and in all cases the benefit is 
mutual ; for the interest of the tenantry must be 
always likewise the interest of the proprietors of 
the soil. The attention of the labourer will be 
more minute, and he will exert himself more for 
improvement when he is certain he cannot deceive 
his employer, and has a conviction of the extent 
of his knowledge. Ignorance in the possessor of 
an estate of the manner in which it ought to be 
treated, generally leads either to inattention or 
injudicious practices in the tenant or the bailiff. 
“ Agrum pessimum mulct art cujus Dominus non 
docet sed audit villicum.” 
There is no idea more unfounded than that a 
great devotion of time, and a minute knowledge 
of general chemistry, is necessary for pursuing ex- 
periments on the nature of soils or the properties 
of manures. Nothing can be more easy than to 
discover whether a soil effervesces, or changes 
colour by the action of an acid, or whether it 
burns when heated; or what weight it loses by 
