258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of himself, and in its assimilation he has become richer and 

 stronger, and is happy in a greater mastery over nature, as 

 well as in a consciousness of being abreast of the time and 

 its opportunities. 



The successful farmer is also he who most keenly feels the 

 need of more knowledge. He has had his eyes most widely 

 opened to the defects and insufficiency of his farming. He 

 appreciates most keenly, that, while the least cost of a crop 

 or of an animal's keep amounts to a certain sum — whether 

 corn and cow be good or bad — the profit lies mainly in every 

 kernel of grain or drop of milk he can produce as increase 

 above the ordinary yield. To get an increase becomes his 

 unceasing endeavor. He tries this method and that, varies 

 the tillage and the treatment of the crop, varies the rations, 

 and increases the care of his cows, proving all things and 

 holding fast to that which experiment shows to be good. 

 But with his best eiforts he feels that there are blanks in his 

 knowledge that he cannot fill. He tries a practice most highly 

 recommended, and can get no profit of it, then another, with 

 like result, and often finds the gains of his successful trials 

 fully ofiset by the costs and losses of his failures. He does 

 not lose faith in this plan of getting knowledge, but he learns 

 that he cannot carry out all his good ideas, cannot make all 

 the trials he would like, and has to submit to uncertainty and 

 disappointment. He is more sobered than inspirited by some 

 of his ventures, and if he does not settle down in "the good 

 old way," he inclines more thereto, and feels a more chari- 

 table sympath}^ for those who let their neighbors try experi- 

 ments, and even for those who get on by saving and by 

 "scrimping," rather than by learning. 



Recent years have brought a marvelous increase of knowl- 

 edge into the world of afiairs, and have strangely intensified 

 the search for knowledge, as well as multiplied and energized 

 the means of discovery. The methods and the fruits of in- 

 tellectual investigation, the systematic hunting down of things 

 hidden from the common gaze, and the game thus captured, 

 ware hat we call science. Science is the peculiar pride and 



