EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 10. Junk, L919. No. 8. 



It lias lnvn said that t bo role of science is prophecy. Tn the sense 

 of revealing natural law and its manifestations, this i^- another way 

 of saying that the role of science is to enable prediction regarding 

 the operations of natural phenomena under definite conditions. For 

 scienre enables the relation between cause and effect to be traced, 

 determines the response to specific influences and conditions: and 

 since the knowledge it establishes is exact and unvarying it becomes 

 possible to prophesy with certainty what will take place when certain 

 conditions meet. The statement therefore expresses broadly the final 

 function and attribute of science. 



Bui beyond this, science is at once the source of exact knowledge 

 and the means by which it is advanced, it supplies a background in 

 accumulated information, and it permits a glance into the unknown 

 which enables further advances to be made. It thus broadens the 

 vision of problems and their nature, stimulates speculation, and sug- 

 gests courses of action which may be productive. These are essentials 

 of prophecy in respect to natural manifestations, without which there 

 could be no progress in science. 



Progress is the keynote of science. Science is never complete; it is 

 in continual process of being added to. An answer suggests further 

 questions and may reveal a possible means of solution. Science is 

 therefore constantly searching, building new theories, advancing its 

 boundaries step by step, making prophecy more sure. Investigation 

 which is not thus characterized falls short of its purpose. 



Science not only contributes substantia] facts but it discloses more 

 clearly the real nature of complex problems, making their solution 

 more feasible: and it propounds new ones which are practicable of 

 productive study. To propound problems and to analyze and define 

 their character are important functions of science. These are first 

 steps in the direction of progress, for they provide a starting point 

 and a clearly defined purpose. 



In agriculture it has acquired long years of research to lay bare 

 the real underlying questions and suggest how they might be 

 approached. The starting point was naturally provided mninly by 



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