OF SCOTLAND.

417

SECT. III.

RESULT OF THE DISCUSSJON.

Agriculture is assuredly an experimental art, yet as eacliindividual experiment requires at least a whole year for itsPerformance, the general results of any rotation system, andstill more of opposite systems, require a considerable series ofyears before they can be compared and pronounced on withany tolerable certainty. There is perhaps no other art towhich an ancient aphorism, Art is long, and life short, can beapplied with equal truth. In the great and leading practicestherefore ot farming, the multitude follow certain generalprinciples of practice which they have noticed from their in-fancy, almost without question or consideration as to theirexpediency, and scarcely ever think of endeavouring to makethe smallest alteration or improvement. A few bold and ju-dicious men, who occasionally travel into distant districts,fortunately observe new practices with a discerning eye, andintroduce them into their own farms, whence they are gra-dually adopted by their neighbours. Occasionally, an adven-turous philosopher dares to think for himself, and strikes outnew and unheard of practices, some of which are unsuccessfuland fall into oblivion, and others take firm root and are gra-dually disseminated. But, generally speaking, the principallr nprovements can only be traced as having travelled from ones Pot to another. Among original inventions in farming whichc an actually be traced, ar c., first, the drill system of Jethro Tull,firmly established in the turnip husbandry of Scotland , butwith considerable modifications, by Mr Dawson, residing atProgden in Roxburghshire; secondly, the various improve-ments introduced by Mr Bakewell, in the breeding of stock,vol. i. 2 d