As the winter is a season of comparative leisure, it is the time for
farmers to study. It is a good time for them to make themselves
acquainted with the nature of soils, of manures, of vegetable
organization—or structural botany. Farmers are liable to rely wholly
upon their own experience, and to despise science. Book-men are apt to
rely on scientific theories, and nothing upon practice. If these two
tendencies would only court and marry each other, what a hopeful
family would they rear! How nice it would look to see in the papers:
MARRIED.—By Philosophical Wisdom, Esq., Mr. Practical Experience, to
Miss Sober Science. [We will stand godfather to all the children.]