EDITORIAL. 203 



Welch ascribed to medicine. Both rest upon the application of 

 principles developed by various branches of science, and these prin- 

 ciples and applications arranged and correlated form in each case a 

 composite science. Thus complex relations and the necessity which 

 they im})ose of utilizino- the teachings of all natural science broaden 

 agriculture and medicine alike and heighten the dignity of their 

 practice. 



The practice of agriculture, like that of medicine, depends ujion 

 the accunndation of exi)erienfe and investigation and re([uiri's much 

 judgment in the interi)retation of observed results and theii' applica- 

 tion. Until comparatively recent yenrs the methods of practice were 

 very largely dej)endent upon the accunndated observations and ex- 

 periences of practical men. Hence the knowledge was largely em- 

 pirical and was often without scientific foundation. The deductions 

 upon which it was based were made without an understanding of 

 the reason and causes of what was observed, and too broad generaliza- 

 tions and applications were made. These gradually became tradi- 

 tions of practice and had much the strength of scientific laws. A 

 certain amount of mystery surrounded the practice of medicine, and 

 this was also true of agriculture, especially the ability to produce 

 certain results. Success was attributed largely to the skill of the 

 individuak and it was intimated that the operations of neither were 

 governed l)y the laws of science. 



Gradually these ideas have been dispelled in the case of both medi- 

 cine and agriculture, and this has come about in both cases as a 

 I'esult of progress in science and the development of methods of 

 research. Progress in recent years has been rapid, and the application 

 and reliability of the results in practice have become fully recognized. 

 As a complex medical science has gradually been develoi^ed out of 

 the teachings of investigations in chemistry, physics, and biology, 

 Avhich has prepared the way for intelligent practice in the pre- 

 vention and combating of disease, so an equally complex science of 

 agriculture is rapidly developing, which enables the art to break 

 away from tradition and places it upon a more enlightened and 

 intelligent basis. 



The most noteworthy progress in medicine has come from funda- 

 mental investigation which disclosed the reason for observed results, 

 tauglit the fundamental causes of disease, and has enabled the pre- 

 vention as well as the intelligent treatment of the disease after it 

 appeared. In agi-iculture, likewise, some of the most abiding and 

 far-reaching results of research have come from that which was 

 fundamental in the sense of broadening our definite knowledge of 

 the relations and the intermediate steps between cause and effect, 

 enabling the agriculturist to more largely control conditions instead 

 of being at their mercy. 



