SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 257 



of great value in giving us a rational knowledge of agricultural facts and prin- 

 ciples. 



Chemistry, as you all know, has made wonderful progress, and its important 

 contributions to these sciences, and its obvious and intimate relations to all 

 agricultural processes and interests, have led to the establishment of agricul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations for the diffusion and increase of knowl- 

 edge relating to the industrial arts. 



We shall not, however, trespass on the domain of these departments of 

 science whose claims to respectful consideration have been so often presented 

 to you by able specialists, but will present for your consideration a summary 

 of the latest developments of biological science, relating to matters of practical 

 interest to the farmer, and not embraced in their legitimate range. 



Notwithstanding the light thrown upon the many problems presented in 

 farm practice by the departments of science referred to there were frequently 

 occurring cases which were still involved in obscurity, and paradoxical results 

 were sometimes obtained which, to the superficial observer, seemed to throw 

 doubts upon the accuracy or reliability of the scientific methods made use of in 

 their investigation. 



The failure to reach definite conclusions in these cases arose, not from inher- 

 ent defects in scientific methods, but from the fact that the lines of research 

 did not cover the entire field, and they could therefore account for but part of 

 the phenomena observed. There was a missing link that was needed to make 

 the chain a complete and perfect whole. 



This gap in our means of investigation has fortunately been filled by the prog- 

 ress of biological science within the past ten years, and a clew is now presented 

 to us which gives a bright promise of leading to a satisfactory explanation of 

 what we had before been unable to understand. 



In its present development, this recently discovered department of biology 

 has revealed to us a new kingdom of nature, and established lines of investiga- 

 tion which supplement our former methods of research, and widen the field of 

 science in its applications to agriculture. 



In agriculture we have to deal with life in all its various forms and mani- 

 festations. Our domesticated animals and the various crops we grow, with 

 the numerous visible parasites which infest them, we are all familiar with, and 

 it is with these that the departments of science we have enumerated are 

 principally concerned. 



In addition to these conspicuous forms of life there is a world of minute 

 organisms, only visible by means of the microscope, which have an important 

 role to perform in the economy of nature. Our knowledge of them is only 

 made possible by recent improvements in the microscope and in methods of 

 study and investigation. 



The extreme minuteness of many of these organisms, the most active imagi- 

 nation can hardly comprehend. We are profoundly impressed with astro- 

 nomical magnitudes and distances which approximate to infinity in one direc- 

 tion, while in this world of active living forms we approach infinity in the 

 opposite direction, as the highest powers of the most perfect microscopes are 

 not sufficient to make the smallest of them visible. 



But even here our methods of investigation are not at fault, as the spores 

 and germs of the most minute organisms may be successfully studied under 

 exact methods of manipulation when they are not evident to our senses, as 

 individuals, under the highest magnification. 



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