316 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



practise can at once be introduced, but this happens only when the 

 penetrative genius of a Pasteur or a Mendel has worked out the way 

 into a new region of knowledge, and returns with a treasure that all 

 can use. Given the knowledge it will soon enough become applied. 



I am not advocating work in the clouds. In all that is attempted 

 we must stick near to the facts. Though the methods of research and 

 of thought must be strict and academic, it is in the farm and the 

 garden that they must be applied. If inspiration is to be found any- 

 where it will be there. The investigator will do well to work 



As if his highest plot 

 To plant the bergamot. 



It is only in the closest familiarity with phenomena that we can 

 attain to that perception of their orderly relations, which is the be- 

 ginning of discovery. 



To the creation of applicable science the very highest gifts and 

 training are well devoted. In a foreign country an eminent man of 

 science was speaking to me of a common friend, and he said that as our 

 friend's qualifications were not of the first rank he would have to join 

 the agricultural side of the university. I have heard remarks of similar 

 disparagement at home. Now, whether from the standpoint of agri- 

 culture or pure science, I can imagine no policy more stupid and short- 

 sighted. 



The man who devotes his life to applied science should be made to 

 feel that he is in the main stream of scientific progress. If he is not, 

 both his work and science at large will suffer. The opportunities of 

 discovery are so few that we can not afford to miss any, and it is to the 

 man of trained mind who is in contact with the phenomena of a great 

 applied science that such opportunities are most often given. Through 

 his hands pass precious material, the outcome sometimes of years of 

 effort and design. To tell him that he must not pursue that inquiry 

 further because he can not foresee a direct and immediate application 

 of the knowledge he would acquire, is, I believe almost always, a course 

 detrimental to the real interests of the applied science. I could name 

 specific instances where in other countries thoroughly competent and 

 zealous investigators have by the shortsightedness of superior officials 

 been thus debarred from following to their conclusion researches of 

 great value and novelty. 



In this country where the Development Commission will presum- 

 ably for many years be the main instigator and controller of agricul- 

 tural research, the constitution of the advisory board, on which science 

 is largely represented, forms a guarantee that broader counsels will 

 prevail, and it is to be hoped that not merely this inception of the work, 

 but its future administration also will be guided in the same spirit. 



