316 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



used. But the one who used bone dust used bone phosphate, 

 together with gelatine — nitrogenous matter; the one who used 

 superphosphate of lime, used, in all likelihood, nitrogenous matter 

 together with soluble phosphate of lime and insoluble phosphate 

 and sulphate of lime ; the one who used apatite, used the most 

 insoluble form of phosphate, and with no nitrogenous matter at all, 

 and how could the results agree ? If nature had given an answer, 

 yes or no, the same in each case, the answer would have been of 

 no value, because, if you had found the same answer to different 

 questions, you would have thought something was wrong in the 

 manipulations. So, if you want an answer, yes or no, to your 

 question, make it as pointed as you can, eliminate every outside 

 complicartion ; do not let the experiment cover too much ground, 

 but have it directed to a particular point. 



Take this subject of potato growing. It is too much to ask one 

 man to experiment in regard to early and late varieties, and in 

 regard to the size or weight of seed, and the distance between the 

 hills, which will produce the best crop. Either of these is enough 

 for one man to study at the same time. It is this very desire to 

 cover too much ground that makes much American experimenting 

 so fallacious. Our experimenters want to do too much. They are 

 not satisfied with taking one point and working it out fairly and 

 faithfully. A long time ago, a German writer said " Experiments 

 it is true, are not easy ; still, they are in the power of every think- 

 ing husbandman. He who accomplishes but one, of however 

 limited application, and takes care to report it faithfully, advances 

 the science and consequently the practice of agriculture, and 

 acquires thereby a right to the gratitude of his fellows and of 

 those who come after him." "Of however limited application." 

 Note that limiting clause. Make your question pointed; do not 

 ask too much of nature ; because, if you ask a complex question 

 and get the answer "Yes," you do not know to which division of 

 that complex question the answer "Yes" applies. Make your 

 question, therefore, pointed. 



To put this in other language, in the first place, you must care- 

 fully study all the conditions of the experiment. Take, for in- 

 stance, the first experiment to which I referred — the effect of 

 potash upon a given soil. It makes all the difference in the world 

 to what kind of soil you applj^ it. That is the very first condition 

 which you must study. Now, in regard to the examination of the 

 soil, you must have a physical inspection of it, I had almost said 



