13804.] The Utility of Experimental Farms. 7

degree, it would seem expedient to attach to them certain portions of land in the nature ot experimental farms. Read- 11nS, unaccompanied by experimental regearch, cannot be Supposed to form the agricultunst Such as he ought to Be: and if lands for the purpose of conducting experiments In all be various branches of agricalture and rural economy were attached to these institutionss 1 conceive it tv be highly probable that the Science would advance more towards a SyS» tem of perlection in a period of Seven years, than otherwize in the course vf a century.:

Of the fugitive experiments made by individua( „the properties of new plants, in ascertaining a SUPeCrYIOr and more correct method of cultivation, by far the greater part are lost to he public, and that even of Such as may have proved Successtul; and which, 1t divulged, might probably have been in many instances of Singular Linportance to the interezts of Society. M

But unsuccessful experiments may also have their uses. A correct recital of the Steps which may Dave led to tne result, might serve to Shew that Such an experiment, at a fruitless expence, ought no more to be repeated ov the one hand; and on the other, that 5uch 4 one might have Succeeded by Some- thing oft addition, of retrencbhment, or other variation In the mode of conducting the process«.

Of this dlass. of experiments, however, the public are to remain in total ignorance z for resolution is wanting in the generality of men to volunteer a display of their S0ppoSed deficiencies, in whatever degree they might eventually prove Salutary to Society: nor iS this wonderful, when it is considered that the exhibition of our best periorimances requires the sti- imulus of honour or of profit.

To public bodies, constituted in the manner before men- tioned, the objection would by no means apply; on the con- trary, il would become the prime object of their purzuit to record, and to disseminate for the instrucuon of the public, the circumstances, with the result of every experiment to be conducted.

Experiments in agriculture, with a view to general im- provement, ought indeed, in the very nature of things to be conducted and registered by public bodies. How much time, how much patience, how much attention doth a Single expe- rinent frequently require! and, after all, how often 15 repeti- tion necesSary to a SatisfacCLlory concluzion!

We have known an individual, it is true, in whom were united the patience, the ability, the acuvity of mind, and alk the requisites we may generally expect 10 meet in an aggre=

vate body: but alas! in the prime of manhood, in the fall glow 8 5 t» 8

1s, on