DECEMIJEK MEETING. 311 



As a last example of these experiments tliat fill the newspapers, I will cite 

 an instance that comes nearer home. A few years ago I performed a Fcries of 

 experiments witli ];otatoes, ])lanting in sections and adopting a dillerent metliod 

 with each section or plat. When I came to dig the potatoes there was one plat 

 that yielded a very large amount of tubers proportionately, and it was the plat 

 upon which I had practiced pruning the vines. Tiie variety of potato was one 

 that in common terms "ran to vines," a strong growing sort, and tiiis result 

 indicated that the checking of the top by trimming had created a tendency on 

 the under-ground root-stalk to set tubers. I stated the facts with a careful rec- 

 ord of management, weight of tubers in various plats, etc., in a newspaper 

 article contributed to a leading agricultural periodical, and appended at the 

 bottom the statement, that this was but one year's work, and another might 

 indicate a contrary conclusion. The figures caught the eyes of a good many 

 agricultural editors (being one myself I knov/ how it is), and the article was 

 soon to be found in all the leading agricultural papers, in one form or another, 

 but in almost every instance the figures were given without the added remark 

 of mine, — which indicated their small value, — and worse tlian all, in many in- 

 stances it was lauded as a new thing in the potato line. 



I have continued that experiment, and find my first results arc not liable to 

 be duplicated ; in truth, my succeeding experiments indicate that there is little 

 or no increase in yield as the result of pruning the tops ; and as for the experi- 

 ment being a new one, those who carefully look over the agricultural literature 

 of the past century will find the same thing has been recorded before, time and 

 again, with the same satisfactory results, but never has become a practice be- 

 cause there was no real merit in it. 



So much for the literature of experiments. Let me say further that I 

 scarcely go anywhere but that I find men are experimenting, in their way, and 

 are constantly arriving at valuable results that guide them in their practice. 

 This is their own statement of the case. These results are generally sources of 

 continual error, and act as a snare rather than an assistance in the operations 

 of the farm and garden. The worst of it is that they have obtained such a 

 firm hold upon the people that there is no possibility of eradicating it. 

 Advancement is thus checked and production decreased rather than augmented. 

 As an illustration of experiments of this character, I will name those which 

 have resulted in the popular notion that wheat turns into chess. I have no 

 patience on the other hand with these scientific men who simply settle back in 

 their chairs and say, "This is a preposterous idea, a simple prejudice grown to 

 large proportions, and is so at variance with natural law as to be im])ossible," 

 and consider the question settled. But I do commend the attitude of the 

 leading botanist of our State, and who is with us here, who says, "Send me 

 your chess that is turned from wheat, and when you find a shell of a wheat 

 kernel at the base of it as the foundation of its life, I will believe you have an 

 observation tliat is wortli something." Still, in every instance where the roots 

 have been carefully washed the original chess kernel has been found. Long 

 theories have been spun out to account for^the change of one genus of plants 

 to another, when the fact of such a metamorphosis has never been observed. 



The firm hold which this error has upon the people sliows how necessary it is 

 in order to know the truth that wc all know better how to observe — how to 

 experiment. 



The influence of the moon upon the planting of seeds and upon the changes 

 in the weather, are further examples of the errors that may be a part of vi very 



