ENERGY AS A FACTOR IN AGRICULTURE. 89 



In almost every problem in agriculture the complex phe- 

 nomena of life are directly concerned, under various forms and 

 activities, which can not be expressed or formulated in chemical 

 terms, from the self-evident truth that the part can not contain 

 the whole. The significance and interdependent relations of the 

 biological factors in agriculture are unavoidably obscured by the 

 exclusive consideration of specific details "which, with the ad- 

 vance of knowledge, may prove to be but incidents in the mani- 

 festations of general laws. 



The solution of these Protean problems can only be secured by 

 abstract researches to determine the relations of the several fac- 

 tors to each other, and to the general laws of which they are the 

 expression. The principles of science that are admitted to be of 

 general application are the only safe guides in developing an 

 improved and rational system of agriculture, while the purely 

 empirical lines of research that aim to discover specific rules 

 of practice, and thus gain immediate practical results, retard the 

 march of progress by the delusive importance assigned to non- 

 essential details. 



The truth of these statements may be illustrated by the re- 

 markable progress of the physical sciences in the past quarter of 

 a century, and the rapid development of the industrial arts 

 through the recognition and applications of the principle of the 

 conservation of energy, which Faraday looked upon as " the high- 

 est law in physical science which our faculties permit us to per- 

 ceive," and Huxley refers to, in connection with evolution, as 

 " the greatest of all of the generalizations of science." 



The principle of the conservation of energy, which is now gen- 

 erally admitted to be a prime factor in Nature's operations, has not 

 received adequate attention in agricultural science. It is true 

 that in general terms it has been incidentally referred to as a fac- 

 tor in biology, more particularly with reference to mechanical 

 work, but the dominance of purely chemical considerations has 

 prevented its real significance in all organic processes from being 

 fully recognized. 



More than twenty-five years ago, Dr. William B. Carpenter 

 pointed out to physiologists the " distinction between the dynami- 

 cal and the material conditions ; the former supplying the power 

 which does the work, while the latter affords the instrumental 

 means through which that power operates." 



The material conditions have, however, continued to receive a 

 predominant, and almost exclusive, share of attention, and the 

 manifestations of energy in the processes of vegetable and animal 

 nutrition have practically been ignored. 



In the applications of science to agriculture, and especially in 

 planning and conducting experiments, the transformations of 



TOL. XLI. 9 



