Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-01-31
Agricultural Experiments.


We view as an experiment, any trial of a new
thing, or new way of doing any thing of
new seed, or Of new root-whateyer adds to
our experience and an experiment is success
full only if we can repeat it with the same re-
sult-no matter whether the result be favorable
or not. Those who report experiments for
agricultural papers should remember this and
also, that those who read these reported expert
ments with view to classify them and com
pare them with others, if persons of any dis
elimination, will cast them aside as worthless
unless they bear internal evidence that repe-
tition would be attended by a like result
Hundreds of experiments are described in our
agricultural papers that are read, and have
their influence in changing the practice of many
perhaps, that have no foltadation in reality
the results may indeed be true but attributed
to wrong causes. For instance; if one says, he
sowed turnip seed and cabbages came up from
II, %e conclude he attributed the growth of the
cabbageS to a wrong cause ; or, if one says, that
he sowed wheat and from it chess came up, the
same conclusion would be just-and so, too, if
1t be said that one mixed guano with its weight
Of quick lime and applied it, after standing
some days, to grass land with marked benefi-
cal effect and recommends this as the best
mode Of applying guano, it would be Just as
certain that he did not know what he was about.
Before any result can establish practice it must
not only be known to be true and to bear rope
tition, but comparative experiments enough
must be made to give it relative value as in
the case Of the guano and lime, just mentioned
If patch had been top-dressed with guano
alone, one with lime alone and the other with
the mixture, a very different result would have
been arrived at.
The field of experiment is vast, and any one
who would do the cause of agriculture real SER
vice, has most excellent opportunity to do so
in entering it. We say, then, to all who will
Enter the field of experimental research, but
be sure that you do so, prepared to profit by
your experiments, whether they be made in the
department of manures, of mechanical working
of the soil, or Of the crops or in that of feeding
animals, or of any other agricultural or horti-
cultural operation.
There are few, who have not given consider
able thought to this matter, who realize the
great care required to produce exact results
The series of experiments conducted by Lawes
and Gilbert which, at once, gave such definite
ness to British agricultural practice in many
particulars, was extended, upon the same land,
over long series Of years, and the ground
fluctuations could be distinctly perceptible-
How few there are who read this, who, if they
were about to try an experiment, in regard,
say, to a certain way Of preparing compost,
would think it Of any Importance what treat
ment the land had sustained four or five years
previous And yet, it might make all the diff
ference in the world with the result, whether
this same land was tOp-dressed with manure or
whether the latter was turned five inches I'M
der ground, or whether compost or common
barn-yard manure had been employed.
Experiments of this character may be tried
upon a comparatively small scale and yet most
accurately. IT, for instance, piece Of ground
be selected which is fifty feet wide and Of any
required length in turG-if this be divided into
plats eighteen or twenty feet wide and a strip
of turf eighteen inches wide marked off be-
tween these plats-these dividing strips may
be rolled up and deposited upon each side, while
the manurmg, blowing and planting is going on,
care always being taken, by means Of stakes, to
have the dividing lines perfectly defined, and
when this is oyer, can be rolled back and adj
iusted accurately, dividing perfectly the differ
entity treated patches from one another, and
most completely separating different grains etc.
We mention this plan merely to show in how
small a space one may try many valuable ex-
periments upon different kinds of grain, grass,
etc, grown side by side, or upon the effect OF
different manures, or of different modes of
treatment Of the soil upon the same crop. The
field is wide and the results may be most valu-
able Plan in the winter for the summers
work-H0meStead