AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 301 



Iii regard to division of labor in experiments, it seems to me 

 that the argument is carried a little too far. We know it is* desira- 

 ble at the present time to make a division of labor. It is impossible 

 for one man to master the entire range of sciences, and become an 

 adept in each. Great discoveries have been made by certain men 

 confining their attention to certain objects, and working them out. 

 It is desirable, of course, to repeat experiments, but the mere fact 

 of repetition does not insure accuracy. If your experiments are 

 defective, you may repeat them through all time and never get a 

 satisfactory result. That is the point that should be kept in mind; 

 repetition is absolutely necessary in experiments, but is not the 

 only element. Accuracy is of the first importance, and then the 

 repetition of an accurate experiment is essential. That is, when 

 developing a law or principle from an experiment, we must do it 

 with all the precautions that can be used. The progress of science 

 has not been on account of the multiplication of observations, but 

 the increased accuracy of than, and the employment of more per- 

 fect means of observation. Our senses become more acute, and 

 we are able to detect slight changes ; then the repetition of a nice 

 observation has given us wonderful progress in science. I would 

 seek a division of labor, and the benefits of co-operation at the 

 same time. In this division of labor, I insist, in the first place, on 

 the importance of confining our investigations to a single point. 

 We should not try to mix science and art ; we should not grow a 

 crop of wheat, and then send a chemist to examine the soil, and 

 draw a conclusion as to the manner in which the plant has grown. 

 We have had too much of such science and investigation. How 

 has progress been made by the scientific men, and what are the 

 scientific experiments to which I refer? The chemist or the physi- 

 ologist has wanted to know what particular elements were taken 

 up from the soil by the plant, and in what particular form. How 

 does he go at it? He takes distilled water and puts in certain 

 definite substances ; he shows what they are, and then grows his 

 plants in that ; he has certain accurate conditions in his experi- 

 ments. The scientific man must control all of the experiments in 

 his investigation ; he must control all of the conditions of the ex- 

 periment in his investigation, or he will not be successful as a 

 scientific man. It will not answer for him to have control of two 

 or three conditions, and then guess at the rest. Here is the differ- 

 ence between investigation in science and art. In the investiga- 

 tion in art, we cannot possibly control the conditions ; we will 



