312 STATE POilOLOGlCAL SOCIETY. 



widespread belief. I say errors, because there is no long coutinned set of 

 observations that support them ; on the contrary the best records made by the 

 most competent men are against them. 



Further illustrations might be indulged in to any extent, but you can all 

 recall them in the experience of your neighbors, and, if honest, in your own 

 cxi^erience. 



THOROUGH AXD WELL DIRECTED EXPERIMENT TENDS TO OBLITERATE PREJU- 

 DICE. 



The power of facts is supreme. The believer in the transformation of wheat 

 to chess may doubt your reasoning when yon tell him the impossibility of it in 

 nature's ct-onomy, but when he brings you a sample of this chess and you sliow 

 him after carefully washing the root the original chess kernel from which it 

 sprung, he will not doubt his own vision. 



I have an example of this in my own experience. I was told that in a certain 

 orchard in northern Ohio a tree bore ap])lcs that were individually half sweet 

 and half sour. I argued against it, said it could not be so, until I was taken 

 into the orchard, shown the tree, and given an apple to eat. I could not deny 

 the testimony of my own palate. It may be difficult to make theories compre- 

 hensible, but facts arc generally very simple and can be understood by anybody. 

 What we need then is more plain, simple facts, the result of honest observation. 

 Thomas Andrew Knight believed that varieties propagated from buds dete- 

 riorate, become unhealthy, and die at about the age the parent stock should die^ 

 acknowledging that there was more or less invigorating influence in new stocks 

 upon which the buds were transplanted, he still believed that every plant had 

 its day and would not bear indefinite propagation from buds. 



If lie could to-day see the varieties of fruit that have been propagated from 

 his day in this way, and witness how perfect are the varieties, with no apparent 

 diminution in vigor or excellence, he would be greatly shaken in his theory. 



For a long time it was supposed by gardeners that the use of potsherds for 

 drainage of plants in pots was absolutely essential to the health of the plants, 

 small and large. Peter Henderson, by a successful practice of years, has shown 

 that there is a great deal of fallacy in this notion; his facts are too much for 

 the theory. 



Experiment well directed, helps people to understand the necessity of going' 

 to the bottom of processes and methods before too general an application. 

 Surface indications are soon seen to be very untrustworthy, and it is found to' 

 be more satisfactory to know a little and know it, than to believe a great deaV 

 with, only a shadow for a foundation. Satisfactory experiment requires 



ABSOLUTE SIMPLICITY IN METHODS 



5br two prominent reasons : 



1st. Any complication is liable to divert observation from the real work, and 

 iha result will be a warped judgment and worthless decision. For instance, if 

 one is pruning on a tree at different seasons to observe the relative rapidity with 

 which tiie wounds heal, he must not at the same time be jiruning that tree 

 with' the idea of producing wood on one part and fruit on the other. Nor 

 should he try the elTcct of thinning the fruit on that tree with the expectation 

 of watching the result and getting at some jirinciple. All this complicates the 

 first experiment so much as to render the decision at the end of it questionable. 



2d. There is-'danger in trying to establish too many facts at once, — that wc 



