EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XIX. July, 1908. No. 11. 



Many of the intricate problems in agriculture which attempt is 

 being made to work out lead back into the realm of pure science. 

 This is true, although the subjects themselves as viewed from their 

 practical bearings may seem remote from it. Their successful solu- 

 tion calls not only for familiarity with these sciences and the methods 

 of investigation which have been developed in them, but also for a 

 sympathy with the point of view of pure science. Such agricultural 

 science as we have is built upon the jjrimary sciences and their appli- 

 cations, and we must continue to draAv upon them and their methods 

 and hence to keep in close touch with their progress. In our attempts 

 to develop the applied science of agriculture it must not be forgotten 

 " that the new is built upon the old and includes the old." 



Much of our investigation in agriculture has started out in too nar- 

 row a way. It has considered the subject simph^ as it is presented in 

 the practical problem, without sufficient attention to analyzing it into 

 its primary factors from a scientific standpoint. To that extent it has 

 often been misdirected and has not been fundamental. AVe have spent 

 years in experimenting on the fertilizer requirements of specific crops, 

 with ver}' little study as to the physiological phases of the question, 

 the function which the various constituents phiy, or the changes they 

 induce. ^Ye know very little of what takes j^lace in the plant or the 

 soil as a result of our treatment. Until the theory of the use of ferti- 

 lizers has been worked out and the reasons for the apparent results 

 which follow their use, we shall have no sound basis for the interpreta- 

 tion of the results of practical experiments or for teaching the subject 

 of plant nutrition. 



The advantage of agricultural science over the individual sciences 

 as applied to agricultural problems should lie in its special point of 

 view and in the bringing of various sciences to bear on these problems. 

 For its purposes the boundaries of the primar}' sciences are over- 

 stepped. The investigator in that field is not restricted to a single 

 science, but employ's the teachings and the methods of several, as his 

 case requires, acting as a coiuiecting or coordinating agent. This 



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