330 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a great overturn of things as they were, and any art or science is 

 advanced thereby. I trust that in the deliberations of this Con- 

 vention the sentiment may be advanced, and that it may be spread 

 throughout the State and everywhere, that there should be, as 

 there is, no conflict between what we call practical work and 

 scientific work, for they go hand in hand together in all that 

 relates to progress. 



Secretary Goodale. If I rightly apprehended the intent of the 

 lecturer, it was not in the least to discourage the practical, every- 

 day experiments which every farmer can and should make, but 

 rather to set forth the conditions Which must "be complied with to 

 insure success in a more difficult class bf experiments. The doing 

 of this substantially aids the farmer in successfully prosecuting 

 his practical experiments ; for some of these conditions, and many 

 more than we may at first suppose, are equally applicable to both 

 classes. The commonest of all dangers is, that we attempt to 

 make deductions from too scanty and iincertain data. He told us 

 that the question put to nature should be plain, and that it should 

 be pointed — that is, I suppose, that it should have one point only, 

 and admit of only one answer. Now, for example, take the ques- 

 tion, "Is salt good for cattle?" That may appear at first sight 

 to be a plain and pointed question, but in fact it is a very complex 

 and many pointed one, or many questions in one ; and we accord- 

 ingly hud a wide diversity of opinions upon it, as the result of 

 imperfect attempts to determine the true answer. One farmer 

 says he would use salt if it cost ten dollars a bushel. Another 

 says he gets little good from it. Let several farmers try to settle 

 the matter by putting the question to nature. One may seek the 

 answer by giving it to young growing cattle, another to mature 

 animals, a third to working cattle, and a fourth to fatting cattle, 

 and all may get different answers. This question has been the 

 subject of careful research at one or more of the (Jcrinan Experi- 

 mental Stations we have heard of, and it is found that its value 

 dificrs widely with difl'erent conditions of the animals. Again, 

 salt would undoubtedly be found more useful in Aroostook or 

 Piscataquis county, far from sea breezes, than on the shores of 

 Hancock. 



The only way to get a satisfactory answer to such a question, 

 seemingly simple but really very complicated, is to divide it up 

 and put it in detail, — with regard to one animal at a time. It is 

 only after obtaining a sufficient number of answers, and carefully 



