CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTINa, QQl 



noting the conditions under which they were severally given, that 

 we have the data needful for an answer. If we look into this sub- 

 ject a little we shall find that, very often when we imagine we are 

 putting one question to nature, we are in fact putting a good 

 many in that one, and hence the difficulty of rightly interpreting 

 the answer which we get. 



The point I desired to make is this : let no farmer be deterred 

 from trying experiments, nor from reporting them, but because the 

 problems with which he deals are, for the most part, complex, let 

 him make his question as single-pointed as possible, and his report 

 to include where, and when, and from what, and how, his answer 

 came, and then that answer will be an actual contribution to 

 knowledge on the subject. Small as the contributions may be in- 

 dividually, yet in the aggregate, when they are brought together 

 and collated, definite and valuable results will be obtained. 



D. fl. Thing. I was very glad indeed to hear the lecture to 

 which we have listened, and I am sorry if anybody felt that a wet 

 blanket had been thrown upon farmers. I think the gentleman 

 made ample apology for the lecture, when he mentioned the ex- 

 periments stated last winter in reference to scalding seeds before 

 planting. Many who are present recollect that discussion. • We 

 had some eminent men from Massachusetts, Dr. Loring and Ex- 

 Governor Brown, and they disagreed utterly. Mr. Chamberlain, 

 of Foxcroft, also disagreed with Dr. Loring entirely. I thought 

 to myself, "If doctors disagree, how shall we farmers decide ? 

 "We can only come to the conclusion, that we will not boil our 

 corn before we plant it. We do not know how hot to make the 

 water ; we do not know what temperature will kill the fungi with- 

 out killing the seed, and we know less now than we did before." 

 Now we want somebody to make the experiment, and let us know 

 the circumstances under which ii was made. It is rather vexa- 

 tious to plant corn and wait three or four years for it to come up. 



Prof. Goodale. I am very sorry that the remarks I have made 

 should be considered as at all of the nature of a wet blanket, for I 

 certainly did not intend to discourage the farmers present, or in 

 the State of Maine, or in this country, from experimenting, in a 

 practical way, for they have received, year after year, directions 

 how to conduct these experiments in the reports of the Secretary 

 of the Board of Agriculture of this State, and in the reports of 

 similar Boards in other States ; but I was endeavoring to show 

 and' I hope I did show — in fact, the remarks which have been 



