Experiment for Yourself.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1775, 23 December 1885, Page 3

Experiment for Yourself.

There is no better teacher than experience ; but the best of teachers cannot do toe pupils' w< rk for them. Whatever they accomplish must he done through their own efforts. We occasionally meet a farmer of threescore years who has spt nt his life on the farm, am' who is working to-day on the knowledge cf farming received during his minority from his father. He has fa leo into ways in which he continues, year after year, without taking the tri able to ascertain the merits of other methods, either through his own experiments or the experience of others. Another live, energetic man will go on a farm, resolving to learn the methods best adapted to locality and circumstances, and he will store up more practical knowledge in three years than the former will in a score. On the farm the light kind of experience is worth a great deal to one who makes proper use of it. But a man may crowd a great deal of experience info a few yeais, or he may scatter a small amount over a long stretch of years. Hence, the number of years a man has spent on a farm does not always show how much he knows aPoui firming To illustrate, a few days ago f asked a neighbor, “ Which do you think is the better way when planting potatoes, to use a whole potato in each hill, or a single eye ?” Why. a whole potato, of course." “ Why do vou think so?" “Well, I have always planted whole potatoes during my forty years on the farm, and I get as good crops as any of the rest.” “ Have you never tried the one eve plan ?" " No." Now. such testimony as this is worth little. Fmty years ago, this mau knew, as everyone knows, that whole potatoes will yield a fair crop when all the conditions are favorable. He knows the same to-day. His experience has taught him nothing. He does not know what half a potato or a single eye in a hill would do, f >r be has never tried them. I believe in experimenting—not rashly jumping at every idea and turning the /aim into an expert mental station. Tests can be made on a small scale, and with little or no expense. A man can gain valuable practical knowledge in this wav that can be obtained in no other ; and it is just the kind adapted to his own farm, f'hia IS what ha warns. What coarse is best fo> a distant neighbor to pm sue, does not S ' directly concern him as does the question regarding the best c unse for him to take True, be can learn much from his neighbor's experiment patch ; but he can get more valuable inform iti o from his own Some care must be exercised iu order that the test ..hall be a fair one. The patches or rows represen ing the different methods muss stand side bv side, on the same kind of soli, ami must be tn ated exactly alike in every paitieular. excepting the one point being tested. Let us uot be too sure that cur present way, in every pirtieular, is the hi st course for us to follow if we have never tried any other. Let us experiment morn. Let us learu all we can from the experience of otuers, and then add to this knowledge as much more as is possible, through exp- riments of our own— H L.0., Strafford County, in the Albany Cultivator.