DECEMBER MEETING. 319 



To a IluiiibokU or :i Ncwioii wc may iin:i.i,'iiio that any new fact, liowcver 

 seemingly trilling, uould thus bo seen to have its bearing upon what was known 

 beforehand would, like each now ])iecc fitted to its place in a dissected map, 

 help to gather uj) and show the connection between things that ha'l heretofore 

 seemingly had no meaning and hence no use. 



So Avhatevcr the mental incentive to experiment, the i)roximate object in 

 view and the methods nsed must be the same with theorist and practician. If 

 then we are going to experiment let us recognize the fact that we are co-workers 

 with scientists throughout the world, and thus will we see that our first move 

 should be to find out who are working the same vein as ourselves, in order that 

 we may be able mutually to help instead of impeding one another. 



Tiianks to the wi.sdoni of our government, we in this State need not look 

 far to find men of science whose efforts are specially directed to our own field 

 of inquiry. The endowment of our State Agricultural College was for the 

 express purpose of advancing both the science and the art of agriculture in all 

 its branches. These objects it is attempting to accomplish by the education of 

 farmers' sons, and by the original study and experiments of its professors. 



But many persons," and even some farmers, while ap])roving these objects, do 

 not believe that the College is accomplishing them, and therefore propose to 

 lighten our taxes by refusing the meagre appropriations asked for. They are 

 like the Egyptian task-masters who said to the toiling Hebrews : •' Ye are idle, 

 ye are idle, "no straw shall be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks." 

 Their opposition is based upon a wholly inadc(|uate appreciation of the diffi- 

 culties and magnitude of the work to be done. They imagine that it is only 

 needful to give nature the cue in order to have her pour out her secrets to the 

 inquirer, whereas nature is chary of her loal treasures, and yields them only as 

 they are wrung from her. 



In no way will we appreciate better the difficulties to be encountered than by 

 making common cause with this institution, and by trying ourselves to help her 

 accomplish a little of that which we ask of her. Then will wo learn that 

 experimenting is hard work with small pay. Eome was not built in a day, and 

 one fact will not establish a theory, unless indeed that fact be as the capstone 

 to a whole pyramid of previous facts, all leading up to the same conclusion. 



We have a great many so-called experiments much like the familiar one of 

 the quack doctor who, having seen a German recover and a Frenchman die 

 under a diet of sauerkraut and bologna sausage, entered those articles of food 

 on his note book as a specific cure for all Teutons, but deadly poison to all 

 Gauls. 



That editors mav be as easily convinced as was the doctor is shown by the 

 following paragraph cut from a late paper : 



''Berkshire vs. Poland China.— A very good test of the relative merits of 

 these breeds was that made by Mr. . At the same time he penned and com- 

 menced to fatten one hog of each breed. They were the same age and subjected 

 to the same treatment. On Monday last both were weighed upon the city 

 scales. The Berkshire weighed 8S5 lbs., and the Poland China 784 lbs. The 

 merits of the two breeds have long been in dispute, and we think this test of 

 their fattening qualities a very fair one.'' 



If for Berkshire and Poland China we substitute German and Frenchman, 

 for the same pig feed in the one case substitute sauerkraut and sausage for both 

 men, and for the resulting 885 lbs,, and 784 lbs., substitute recovery and death 



