128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



ally to impoverish the soil. If the man of science can explain these 

 things to him, he commands his interested attention from the first. 

 And, once entered upon inquiry upon these and similar points, 

 there is no branch of science pertaining to agriculture to which the 

 inquiry may not turn easily and naturally. "All roads lead to 

 Eome,'' declares the ancient proverb; and such is the unity of 

 science, that, once started upon her broad highways, the traveler's 

 feet are ever turned toward the seat of her power and the center of 

 her dominion. The answer of the man of science to the farmer's 

 questions may at first seem disappointing. We find that he does 

 not often answer with a prescription to be blindly taken, or with a 

 recipe to be unquestioningly followed. Nor is he always ready 

 with a clear sokition of the particular problem which is puzzling our 

 brain and disappointing our hopes. Perhaps he cannot tell. It 

 may be that even he does not always know, but he is able to 

 point us to the teacher who does know, and from whom all his 

 knowledge comes. He leads us into the great school of Nature. 

 To this he has the key, and he knows something of the methods 

 of instruction there; and in this perhaps consists the chief ad- 

 vantage he possesses over us. If the question be, What does 

 my soil need? his direction is. Ask of your soil; and he shpws us 

 how to put the question and how to interpret the answer. If 

 we ask, Why does this crop behave in such a manner? he says, 

 Observe the action of the crop under test conditions, and you will 

 find out. Sometimes, with the humility of true wisdom, his answer 

 will be a frank, I do not know. It is not a difiicult matter for a 

 man whose store of information is small, to ask questions which 

 the wisest of men cannot answer. Such intercourse as this breaks 

 down the barriers between the learned and the unlearned, draws 

 them together, and gives to each a knowledge of the other which 

 he could gain in no other way than by personal intercourse. 



It is often a surprise to an uneducated man to find out that 

 there are so many things which the educated man does not know. 

 He finds, and is both surprised and gratified to find that the dif- 

 ference between himself and his educated neighbor is, one of 

 degree and not of kind, and that the knowledge of the wisest man 

 is small compared with the great unknown that surrounds us all. 

 His self-respect is enhanced by this experience. He comes to 

 value the real knowledge which he does possess more highly and 

 is more inclined to add to it. And when once the desire for 

 knowledge is awakened in any heart the way to acquire it will 



