318 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of two, selecting seeds, crossing; the different kinds of corn, crossing the differ- 

 ent breeds of sheep, swine, and ]-»oultrY, always with a delinitc object in view, 

 using hibor-saving machinery. These are a few of the expedients that each 

 can try for himself, always observing carefully the effects, and making a record 

 of the same. 



In conclusion, then, I would say that to succeed in making valuable experi- 

 ments we must first count the cost, we must be close and accurate observers, 

 we must have a definite end in view, and we must be willing to accept the logi- 

 cal answer that results from the facts brought out. 



II. G. Ecynolds, Grand Traverse, remarked as follows : In discussing the 

 methods and objects of experimental study, it is very common to draw a wide 

 distinction between the efforts of scientific workers and those of practical men. 



Tliis distinction, in so far as it refers to the objects sought, may exist to a 

 certain extent in the minds of the experimenters; the theorist looking but for 

 simple knowledge, the practicer on the other hand anxious only for the benefits 

 to be gathered from that knowledge. 



But in methods of research the two classes have but one common road. No 

 royal way is open to cither. The student may undertake to solve more intri- 

 cate questions, or those requiring greater precision in weights and measures 

 than the other, but this is merely a matter of degree, and in whatever question 

 the practical man does attempt an answer, his methods, to be effective, must 

 be scientific. 



About the terms "Science" and ''Scientific'' there is thrown a halo of 

 mystery very similar to that which envelopes the words finance and financial. 

 If we would but remember that finance is simply the study of money, and that 

 science is nothing more nor less than the sum of known truth, we would save 

 ourselves much trouble. 



Science is our vrorking capital of truths in possession, and scientific cxp3ri- 

 ment is an honest and careful seeking for further truths in the light of those 

 already known. If we neglect this light wo must not wonder when we mistake 

 brass for gold or the mirage for reality. 



Without this light we cannot see but that the mine which we are laboriously 

 working has already yielded its treasures. Science not only shows us where 

 this treasure is, but it arms us with tools to dig it out, and with the refiner's 

 blast and the assayer's crucible for separating and testing our results. The 

 practical experimenter wlio ignores science is like the miner who should go 

 naked and with bare hands to wring treasure from the earth. 



Thus we see that a non-scientific cxperitnont is properly one that is made to 

 discover something already known, or something not worth knowing, or whose 

 method is so defective that it proves nothing. All other experiments are scien- 

 tific whetlier made by a school man or not. 



But as before said, a distinction is sometimes drawn as to the object sougiit; 

 the one desiring knowledge for its own sake, the other knowledge to use. But 

 even this distinction exists rather in the design than in the result. For truth 

 is one. It is a symmetrical and consistent whole, of which all the parts are so 

 inter-dependent and interlinked that if we could but grasp and hold in our 

 mind's eye the entire range even of known truth, any addition to this known 

 truth, from whatever source, would be found to have its appropriate place in the 

 general scheme, exactly as each screw and plate and tube of a vast engine has 

 its particular place and is essential to the completeness, perfection, and availa- 

 bility of the whole. 



