40 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



whicli may be modified to his use, •whether these tools be wood or 

 iron, or i*itellectual methods. "We may have a mechanical science, 

 wherein mechanical processes are brought under the influence of 

 knowledge of properties of matter, and the properties of their 

 Juxtaposition. So also we may have agricultural science, whereby 

 agricultural acts are influenced so that they are performed not in 

 darkness, but through the illumination thrown by knowledge over 

 the methods of such acts, and tTieir relations. 



In order to simplify the discussion of agricultural science, a 

 science which deals with such complexities as are offered by the 

 changeable nature of the materials which are caused to react in 

 the formation of food; such as the soil in itself, and in its rela- 

 tions to chemic, physic and vital changes; the plant in its almost 

 infinite changeableness, in its reactions with nature and the acts of 

 man; the man, the contriver of relations whose outcome is to fit 

 the plant for his purpose, not for its own welfare; the various 

 unions, whose sum finds expression in successful farming; in a 

 word, in an application of knowledge to such varied elements, to 

 such varied relations, I am disposed to believe that a separation 

 of agricultural scientific study into two sections may be found 

 convenient and practically useful. I think the student and the 

 worker may better understand their part, if the factor of profit 

 be the knife which shall divide agricultural thought into sections 

 fitted for different styles of treatment. To one section I would 

 apply the term Agricultural Investigation, and this term should 

 embrace studies whose outcome is to be knowledge, without refer- 

 ence to the practical uses of that knowledge ; the second term I 

 would employ is Agricultural Experiment, or investigation carried 

 forward with the aid of such knowledge as detail work oifers 

 towards determining practical profitable methods of farming. 



Experiment is a factor in all science; it is the promoter and 

 tester of facts; the touch-stone for truth. As in mathematical 

 science, we have the "proving," whereby the accuracy of results 

 is maintained; so in chemical science we have the balance which 

 checks the results of analysis. We have here pure sciences, 

 or sciences which possess a measure which gives exactness to their 

 processes and expression. In vital sciences, we lack this well- 

 defined measure, and experimental tests for the accuracy of our 

 conclusion takes the place, offering opportunities for provings as 

 reliable as in the pure sciences, so far as they are applicable, with- 

 out the mathematical accuracy of expression. In the sciences 



