21. OF OBSERVING AND recording FACTS. "Facts are to the mind the same thing as food to the body. On the due digestion of facts depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigour and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts." BURKE. (473.) THESE Words of the "the greatest philosophical statesman of our country," as Sir James Mackintosh designated Burke, convey to the mind but an amplification of a sentiment of Bacon, which says, that "the man who writes, speaks, or meditates, without being well-stocked with facts as landmarks to his understanding, is like a mariner who sails along a treacherous coast without a pilot, or one who adventures on the wide ocean without either a rudder or a compass." The expression of the same sentiment by two very eminent men, at periods so far asunder and in so very different conditions of the country, should convince you of the universal application of its truth, and induce you to adopt it as a maxim. You can easily do so, as there is no class of people more favourably situated for the observation of interesting facts than agricultural pupils. Creation, both animate and inanimate, lies before you; you must be almost always out of doors, when carrying on your operations; and the operations themselves are substantial matters of fact, constantly subject to modification by the state of the land and the atmosphere. It is useful to observe facts and to familiarize yourselves with them, as, when accumulated, they form the stores from which experience draws its deductions. Never suppose any fact too trivial to arrest attention, as what may at first seem trivial, becomes, in many instances, far from being so; it being only by the comparison of one circumstance with another, that their relative value can be ascertained; and familiar knowledge alone can enable you to discriminate between those which influence others, and those which stand in a state of isolation. In this point of view, observation is always valuable; because at first the pupil must necessarily look upon all facts alike, whatever may ultimately be found to be their intrinsic or comparative importance. The unfoldings of experience alone can shew to him, which classes are to be regarded by themselves, and which are not only connected with, but form the character of others. Remember, also, that to observe facts correctly is not so easy a matter as may be at first supposed; there is a proper time for the commencement of the investigation of their history, which, if not hit upon, all the deductions will be erroneous; and this is especially the case when you are performing experiments instituted for the purpose of corroborating opinions already adopted; for, in this way, many an acute experimentalist has been proselytized into an erroneous system of belief. But as pupils you should have no preconceived notions to gratify, no leanings to any species of prejudice. Look upon facts as they occur, and calmly, cautiously, and dispassionately contrast and compare them. It is only thus that you will be able to discriminate causes from consequences, to know the relative importance of one fact to another, and to make the results of actual observation in the field, subservient to your acquiring a practical knowledge of agriculture. (474.) The facts to which you should, in the first instance, direct your attention, are the effects of the weather at the time, not only on the operations of the fields and on their productions, but also on the condition of the live stock. You should notice any remarkable occurrence of heat or cold, rain or drought, unpleasant or agreeable feeling in the air; the effects following any peculiar state of the clouds, or other meteors in the air, as storms, aurora borealis, halos, and the like; the particular operation of rain in retarding or materially altering the labours of the field, and the length of time and quantity of rain that it has taken to produce such an effect; as well as the effects on the health or growth of plants, and the comfort and condition of animals. The effects of cold, or snow, or drought, upon the same subjects, deserve equal attention. (475.) You should particularly observe the time at which each kind of crop is committed to the ground; how long it is till it afterwards appears above it; when it comes into ear; and the period of harvest. Try also to ascertain the quantity of every kind of crop on the ground before it is cut down, and observe whether the event corroborates your judgment. In the same way, try to estimate the weight of cattle by the eye at different periods of their progress towards maturity of condition, and check your trials by measurements. The very handling of beasts for the purpose of measuring them will convey to you much information regarding their progressive state of improvement. When sheep are slaughtered, attend to the weight of the carcass, and endeavour to correct any errors you may have committed in estimating their weights. (476.) Keep a register of each field of the farm; note the quantity of labour it has received, the quantity of manure which has been applied, and the kind of crop sown on it, with the circumstances attending these operations-whether they have been done quickly and in good style, or interruptedly, from the hinderance of the weather or other circumstances; and whether in an objectionable or favourable manner. Ascertain, in each field, the number of ridges required to make an acre, and whether the ridges be of equal length or not. By this you will the more easily ascertain how much dung the field is receiving per acre, the time taken to perform the same quantity of work on ridges of different length, and the comparative value of crop produced on an acre in different parts of the field. The subdivision of the field into acres in this manner will also enable you to compare the relative values of the crops produced on varieties of soil, if any, in the same field, under the same circumstances of treatment. (477.) The easiest and most satisfactory mode of preserving and recording all these facts is in the tabular form, which admits of every fact being put down under its own proper head. This form not only exhibits a full exposition of the whole facts at a glance, but admits of every one being recorded with the least trouble of writing. The advantage of writing them down consists not entirely in recording them, but also of impressing them more strongly on the memory. (478.) The tables should consist of ruled columns, in a book of sufficient size of leaf to contain columns for every subject. There should also be a plan of the farm, with every field represented, having its figure, dimensions, and name, the direction of the ridges, and the number of ridges required to make an acre visibly marked upon it. It would be advisable to enter each field into the book, in which could be noted the various sorts of labour it has received, and the produce it has yielded; so that the whole transactions connected with it for the year could be seen at a glance. There should also be a plan of the stack-yard made every year, with each stack represented in it by a circle, the area of which should contain the name of the field upon which the crop in the stack was grown, the quantity of corn yielded by the stack, and in what way the produce was disposed of; and even the cash (if any) which the produce realized, should be marked down. This plan of the stack-yard should be comprehended on a single page of the book. (479.) To render the whole system of recording facts complete, a summary of them in regard to the weather in each season, together with the produce and value of the crop and stock, should be made up every year to the end of autumn,-the end of the agricultural year. way, an immense mass of useful facts would be recorded within the narrow compass of a single book. Comparisons could thus be easily made between the results of different seasons, and deductions drawn which could not be ascertained by any other means. (480.) The only objection you can possibly urge against the adoption of this plan, is the time required to record the facts. Were the records to be made twice or thrice a-day, like the observations of a meteorological register, the objection would be well founded; because I cannot conceive any task more irksome than the noting down of dry and (in themselves) unmeaning details. But the variations and effects of the weather assume a very different importance, when they possess an overruling influence over the progress of the crops. The recording of these and such like facts can only be required at occasional times, of perhaps an interval of days. The only toil connected with the scheme would be the drawing up of the abstract of the year; but when the task, even if irksome, is for your professional benefit, the time devoted to it should be cheerfully bestowed. 22. OF SOILS AND SUBSOILS. "I wander o'er the various rural toil, And know the nature of each different soil." GAY. (481.) HAVING expatiated on every subject with which it seemed to me expedient that you should be acquainted, to prepare your mind for the reception of lessons in practice, we shall now proceed together to study farming in right earnest. The first thing, as regards the farm itself, which should engage your attention, is the kinds of soil which it contains. To become acquainted with these, so as to be able to identify them anywhere, you should know the external characters of every soil usually met with on a farm; because very few farms contain only one kind of soil, and the generality exhibit a considerable variety. (482.) Practically, a knowledge of the external characters of soils is a matter of no great difficulty; for however complex the composition of any soil appears to be, it possesses a character belonging to its kind, which cannot be confounded with any other. The leading characters of ordinary soils are derived from only two earths, clay and sand, and it is the greater or less admixture of these which stamps the peculiar character of the soil. The properties of either of these earths are even found to exist in what seems a purely calcareous or purely vegetable soil. When either earth is mixed with decomposed vegetable matter, whether supplied naturally or artificially, the soil becomes a loam, the distinguishing character of which is derived from the predominating earth. Thus, there are clay-soils and sandy soils, when either earth predominates; and when either is mixed with decomposed vegetable matter, they are then clay-loams and sandy loams. Sandy soils are divided into two varieties, which do not vary in kind but only in degree. Sand is a powder, consisting of small round particles of siliceous matter; but when these are of the size of a hazel-nut and larger,—that is, gravel,-they give their distinguishing name to the soil; they then form gravelly soils and gravelly loams. Besides these, there are soils which have for their basis another kind of earth-lime, of which the chalky soils of the south of England consist. But these differ in agricultural character in nothing from either the clay or sandy soils, according to the particular formation from which the chalk is derived. If the chalky soil is derived from flinty chalk, then its character is like that of a sandy soil; but if from the under chalk-formation, its character is like that of clay. Writers on agriculture also enumerate a peat-soil, derived from peat; but peat, as crude peat, is of no use to vegetation, and when it is decomposed, it assumes the properties of mould, and should be considered as such; and mould, which forms the essential ingredient of loams, is decomposed vegetable matter, derived either from nature or from artificial application. So, for all practical purposes, soils are most conveniently divided into clayey and sandy, with their respective loams. (483.) Loam, in the sense now given, does not convey the idea attached to it by many writers; and many people talk of it, as if it must necessarily consist of clay. Thus, Johnson, in defining the verb “to loam," gives as a synonyme the verb "to clay ;" and Bacon somewhere says, that "the mellow earth is the best, between the two extremes of clay and sand, if it be not loamy and binding" evidently referring to the binding property of clay. Sir Humphry Davy defines loam as "the impalpable part of the soil, which is usually called clay or loam." And Mr Reid defines the same substance in these words: "The term 'loam' is applied to soils which consist of about one-third of finely divided earthy matter, containing much carbonate of lime. peaty, containing about one-half of vegetable matter." gives a more correct though, in my opinion, not the loam. "The decomposed organic portion of the soil," he truly says, may be termed mould," but he continues to say, and this is what I doubt, that "the fertility of soils is, cæteris paribus, indicated by the greater or smaller proportion of mould which enters into their composi * Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, 8vo edit. 1839, p. 150. Other soils are Professor Low exact idea of a |