EXPERIMENT. Experiments in agricul ture are, and must necessarily always be, of supreme value, since the art must ever be pro gressive, and varieties and conditions ever changing. The testing of new varieties should be carried forward every year more or less, and by every farmer; for; only by this means can certain knowledge be obtained of varieties of trees and plants adapted to a particular soil and situation. Agricultural Colleges, through their experimen tal plots, may render much useful information as to varieties probably useful in various locali ties, and thus simplify experiments, and bring down varieties to be tested by the individual farmer to a very few. Nevertheless, the farmer must, after all, test each for himself to arrive at certain results as to adaptation and value to his particular soil. So in the feeding of stock, in plowing at different depths, and with variously laid furrows; as to mechanical means for amel iorating the soil; upon, various manures, and the best mode of application; in relation to per manent pasture grasses, and the new varieties adapted to our meadows. In all these there is a
wide field, and much to be learned by the Ameri can farmer. In Europe this subject has long received particular attention. In the Eastern States something has been done in this direction. In the West comparatively little has yet been attempted in carrying forward a systematic series of experiment, even by the better class of our Agricultural Oolleges: They are, however, making progress in this direction, and the next decade will, probably, see even that class of Industrial Colleges that have been carried farthest into scholasticism, and away from the industries, wheeling into the true line of their work in this direction.