296 • BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



any body better prepared, but I do not know whether he can tell 

 us to-day. 



It seems to me we cannot too much insist upon the utmost care 

 and precision, so that we may eliminate, as far as possible, every 

 single source of error from these experiments, and reach some 

 results that can be looked upon as derived from the causes sus- 

 pected at least. Nothing struck me more impressively in agricul- 

 tural experiments going on at the European stations than the 

 nicet}' and care with which these experiments were being per- 

 formed. I remember at Munich I saw some plats, less than those 

 recommended here, in which not only the seeds, even when they 

 were grass seeds, were measured, but they were carefully weighed 

 and counted, and at the head of every plat was placed the number 

 of seeds. ■ The professor told me that every result that was 

 obtained from that growth, was weighed, root, branch and fruit, 

 hoping ultimately to reach more clear and distinct results. Now 

 we all know that science never began to make advauces until it 

 called mathematics to its aid. When it began to weigh and 

 measure, and count and number, then science began to make 

 progress. Science in agriculture can make progress no better 

 than in any other branch, unless it conies down to measure and 

 weight and count, and applies* mathematics to get precise results, 

 and measures and weighs, as far as possible, all the forces that 

 enter into it. We see the difficulties, but we cannot help our- 

 selves. We did not make them. We are to encounter them. 

 If I heard to-day for the first time, the sentiments of Dr. Miles 

 and Professor Hamilton and Professor Daniels, I should shut my 

 eyes almost in perfect despair ; saying, there is no use, the thing 

 is so complicated. But when I remember that every other science 

 was, at the beginning, just as much of a riddle as this, and only 

 solved by long and patient study ; when I remember that, I still 

 hope there is something to be learned in agriculture, by the same 

 patience and the same processes. 



Prof. Swallow. I think you will find there will be some diffi- 

 culty in extending the experiments to all the colleges in the coun- 

 try — to some of them, at least. As a general principle, when we 

 are experimenting to discover new laws, we should not override 

 the laws that are well known and already discovered. I was 

 reminded of this by some remarks made about putting animals in 

 separate pens. I suppose there is no law so well established as 

 this : that solitary confinement with many animals is very delete- 



