334 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



lady inquiring for certain goods, was requested, by the employe, "To 

 walk this way." Misunderstanding the request, she replied, "I 

 won't if you kill me." And thus we can not all walk alike. Neither 

 can we teach alike. We can not do successful work by being imi- 

 tators. Each must teach what he is qualified to teach, by putting 

 his individuality into the work, by being himself. This, like beauty, 

 is applicable to all. It affords opportunity for the experimenter 

 to recount his successes or to enlarge on his failures. For the 

 practical farmer to unbutton his eloquence in expatiating upon the 

 manner in which that old desert of a farm, so poor and so dead, 

 that the thunder's diapson long since ceased to produce a sound 

 thereon, now teems with life, and energy, and bacteria, and in- 

 creased crops, some forty, some sixty, some an hundred fold; for 

 the dairyman to pay tribute to his favorite breed, establish iron-clad 

 rules for feeding, and in story and song tell how to quiet the sus- 

 picions of the nervous cow; for the orchardist to sing the bass solo, 

 "Spraying made easy," illustrating the relations existing between 

 the Ben Davis, the turnip and the native apple, also extolling the 

 good qualities of the York Imperial and Keiffer; for the market gar- 

 dener to grow eloquent on quality and quantity, both being pro- 

 ducts of brains, water and sunshine; for the scientific fellow whose 

 advanced thought and efficient service is too frequently the subject 

 of ridicule and misrepresentation, to prove that the truths of the 

 laboratory pertaining to agriculture are but interpretation of nature. 

 The true investigator along these lines to-day is the farmer's best 

 friend. And yet there are limitations to his investigations. There 

 are points beyond which he cannot go, problems only partially 

 solved; things that he dare not say because the statements have 

 not been verified, although he believes them to be true. 



It is a lamentable fact also that the spirit of cannibalism has 

 grasped an ideal product of a scientific mind, as well as by advertis- 

 ing and the pockets of farmers. What they will secure in return for 

 the investment can only be conjectured. Whether the increased size 

 of the nodules on the clover plant will have "value received" stamped 

 thereon will no doubt appear in the forthcoming testmonials. If 

 soil inoculation meets the claims made by some writers and corres- 

 pondents, our teaching will necessarily be more limited and a num 

 ber of subjects can be eliminated from the bulletin. 



An Englishman and an Irishman were employed by the captain of 

 a vessel. The Englishman was hired without recommendations, 

 but the Irishman was required to furnish satisfactory evidence of 

 character and workmanship. The first job was scrubbing the deck. 

 The Englishman was pulling the water with rope and bucket, the 

 Irishman following with the mop. The vessel giving an unex- 

 pected lurch the Englishman went overboard, and the Irishman 



