CHAPTER XII. 
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL HUSBANDRY. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
A productive agriculture is founded upon observation. True as this assertion is, it is no 
doubt equally true that many have been led into error and the practice of an unproductive 
husbandry by observation also. This seeming paradox is easily explained. It arises from 
having given importance to accidental phenomena, or those phenomena which are of little 
or no consequence to the result. As an illustration of the correctness of this position I may 
refer to the confidence which many agriculturists reposed in a special electrical influence, 
which was supposed to promote the growth of vegetables, and which, by certain arrange¬ 
ments of conductors and non-conductors of the fluid, gave force to the assimilative powers 
of the plant. To follow up the idea, I may conceive that the general impression being 
that electricity is an agent of great importance in the economy of the earth, and perhaps 
of special importance too, in the organic kingdom, gave to the common mind a predis¬ 
posing bias in its favor; hence trivial and unimportant observations, unconnected with the 
results, were seized upon as demonstrations of a principle. When, however, this notion 
that electricity, specially applied to fields of growing vegetables, is subjected to another 
class of observations it is found fallacious, notwithstanding its supporters appealed to facts 
for the truth of their doctrine. This is but a single instance of an erroneous practice 
founded upon observation. Without citing the numerous instances belonging to the same 
class, I proceed to remark, that it is apparent that the most important of all acquirements 
of the farmer, is to be able to distinguish between the accidental circumstances and those 
which are essential to the result; those which are important to the success of an experiment 
and those which have no influence upon it. The inability to do this, and the inattention 
which has been paid to it has given rise to most of the erroneous doctrines which have 
been propagated in this and every other country. It is true that it is not always an easy 
matter to do this; but it is equally true that error propagated is not by any means due to 
the difficulty, but rather to a hasty determination and an unwillingness to consider the 
