422 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Closely allied to this doctrine is the law of diminishing returns, 

 which, although it is fundamental and all-embracing, is usually applied 

 to the agricultural industry. The speaker pointed out that through 

 the introduction of machinery and the application of new principles 

 in agriculture, science has greatly extended and regulated agricultural 

 production and has modified the law of diminishing returns "to such 

 a degree as, for a while at least, to rob it of its peculiar influence in 

 increasing cost or retarding the supply from the cultivation of cer- 

 tain kinds of land." 



In connection with the labor question stress was laid upon the 

 relation of food to the efficiency of labor, and the speaker laid down 

 the principle that the economy of food must be treated from two 

 standpoints — the physiological and the pecuniary. " These elements 

 cannot be separated," he said, "if we are to understand fully the 

 effects of different foods upon the efficiency of labor and the capacity 

 of labor to sustain itself. These things should form a part of political 

 economy; they are certainly far more valuable than any treatise upon 

 rent or interest." The conviction was expressed that the various 

 agencies now at work under the patronage of the Government, scien- 

 tific institutions, colleges, and universities will furnish a body of facts 

 that will clearly and definitely decide the great question of efficiency 

 of labor so far as food is concerned. 



The Philadelphia meeting marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of 

 the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, which was 

 established by a body of men who felt the need of an organization 

 where the methods and results of agricultural experimentation might 

 be discussed. In his presidential address this year Dr. William Frear 

 briefly reviewed the development of agricultural science in various 

 directions, which began with chemistry and was later extended to 

 physics and biology, and called attention to the necessity for coopera- 

 tion between the different branches of science in extending the bounda- 

 ries of knowledge relating to the science of agriculture. The calls 

 upon the investigators are becoming more numerous, and the problems 

 presented to them are increasingly complicated, so that we now recog- 

 nize that they must be approached from various points of view. 



Referring to the practical character of American investigation in 

 many lines, rather than its being conspicuously scientific, the speaker 

 stated that this condition was reflected in our schemes for agricultural 

 education, which have laid special stress upon the art. He made an 

 appeal for greater attention to science as the foundation of the art, 

 and said in conclusion: " Modern agricultural education will fail unless 

 the science is made to keep equal pace with the art, both in our schools 

 and in our experiment stations. The art of the future must depend 

 upon the science of the future, as well as upon that of to-day, and the 



