463 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



scientific men and practical men. All manner of jokes, at the expense of one 

 class or the other — are invented to keep up this alienation of feeling. One 

 of these I noticed a short time ago represented a professor who had caught a 

 mud turtle. As he was taking it home an old farmer asked him what he was 

 going to do with it. The ]irofessor said he had some doves at home and he 

 was going to cross tliem with the turtle and raise turtle doves. In the past 

 these two classes of men have too much stood aloof from each other. The 

 practical farmer has too often regarded the scientist who writes and lectures on 

 agricultural topics with a feeling almost of contempt as a mere theorist; and 

 the scientist no doubt has sometimes failed to come sufiiciently in contact with 

 the men of practice, and you know it is a fact pertaining to men everywhere, 

 and in all relations, that we nndervalue so long as we stand aloof from each 

 other. 



We must not forget that there is a class of men both in this country and 

 in Europe, who, during the present century have done much for the advance- 

 ment of agriculture who, in all probability would not know how to perform a 

 single operation on the farm ; yet the debt we owe to these men is beyond all 

 computation. They have made investigations and established principles and 

 facts that are invaluable to the agriculturist and to the world at large. Their 

 investigations have lead to the discovery of fertilizers, and to a large knowl- 

 edge in regard to their use and relative value. Through their genius and in- 

 dustry important principles have been applied to the construction of farm 

 machinery, making the progress in this respect almost marvelous in our day, 

 so that in many operations on the farm one man can do more than ten men 

 used to do, and toil less slavishly than before. Tlie work they have done in 

 the respective fields of animal and vegetable physiology having given us im- 

 proved breeds of domestic animals and a greatly enlarged and improved vari- 

 ety of grains, vegetables and fruits. On the other hand we have practical 

 men who can perform all kinds of agricultural operations, who cannot under- 

 stand how one grain of wheat will sprout and grow, and how another lying 

 beside it will not grow. 



It is so in other occupations, there are and must be men of science and men 

 of practice, the one class is essential to the other, and while one cannot fill 

 the position of the other and is not possessed of the same kind of knowledge, 

 each may be eificient in his own department. One man knows how to con- 

 struct a locomotive and another man knows how to run it. So one man 

 applies his knowledge of mechanics to tiie construction of a reaper or a thresh- 

 ing machine, another man knows how to use one or both. One man applies 

 his knowledge of vegetable physiology and gives the farmer an improved vari- 

 ety of grain or fruit, and anotlier sows, plants and reaps. 



The improvement of agriculture and the development of its resources require 

 that these two classes of men come together more than they have done. The 

 scientific man must not ignore the practical man, but recognize him as a fel- 

 low worker in the same cause, and the practical man must learn to respect the 

 opinions of the scientific man just as he does the opinions of other professional 

 men in their particular line. There is and can be no real antagonism between 

 science and practice in farming. The one is the demonstration of the other. 

 Science discovers and suggests and practice performs, — or if practice discovers 

 science explains and records the discovery. 



To some extent our agricultural fairs arc educating farmers in regard to the 

 importance and value of scientific agriculture. In Avhat is tlicrc placed on 

 exhibition it can be seen what some of tlie natural sciences have done, in what 



