498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



swimming, rowing, skating, bowling, hand-ball, and general gymnas- 

 tics, are the exercises best adapted to girls, and, for that matter, to 

 any persons who wish a healthful and well-balanced rather than an 

 abnormal physical development. 



(The harmful and disfiguring accidents which often result from the 

 rougher games practiced by young men, as well as the graver injuries 

 which are the direct result of heavy lifting or a sudden severe strain 

 upon certain sets of muscles, are matters to be deprecated, not emu- 

 lated, and perfect physical training does not require such sacrifices.) 



Where the girl has been allowed to grow to early womanhood neg- 

 lectful of the requirements for proper physical culture, the question of 

 what she may then undertake is a more serious one. If she be in col- 

 lege, the college physician should ascertain if there are any organic 

 defects, and, if any exist, regulate her exercise in accordance with the 

 requirements of the case. In nearly all cases, if the work is begun 

 carefully, increased gradually, and sustained systematically, the best 

 results will follow. 



Let the girl be properly reared, and it will be found that Nature 

 has imposed no obstacles against the attainment of the most healthful 

 and highest physical standards which are commensurate with the nor- 

 mal development of the system. 



FIELD EXPEEIMENTS IK AGEICULTURE. 



By H. p. AEMSBY, 

 professor of agbicultitral chemistkt in the university of wisconsin. 



THE field experiment is both the oldest, the most common, and 

 the most popular form of agricultural experiment. So soon as 

 agriculture passed beyond the rudest and most primitive stages, the 

 idea of testing the value of different manures, or of different modes 

 of culture and treatment, or of divers kinds or varieties of plants by 

 means of comparative trials on adjacent plots of ground, must have 

 suggested itself, and so the agricultural field experiment was initiated. 

 In its beginning it must have been of the rudest character, and yet the 

 fundamental idea was essentially scientific, viz., to place the things to 

 be compared under the same conditions, and let each bring forth its 

 results ; and while the details of such experiments have been gradually 

 refined, and errors of method eliminated, they are still the same in 

 purpose and essence. 



Such experiments appeal powerfully to popular interest ; and the 

 reasons for this are not difiicult to perceive. Field trials deal with sub- 

 jects of constant and absorbing interest to the farmer in a way readi- 

 ly comprehended ; they employ processes with which he is familiar 

 through daily use of them ; above all, they seem to promise results 



