602 Experiment station record. 



and working at it. One has an objective, constructive aim, and a 

 method which embodies all that the best knowledge and experience 

 and ingenuity can suggest; the other works around the edges of the 

 question, searching for a lead and waiting for something to turn up. 



While some of this uncertainty is manifestly unavoidable, and 

 arises in a measure out of the general deficiencies of laiowledge, it is 

 increased by haste, deficient preparation, insufficient attention to de- 

 tails, and other matters which have a pronounced effect. It results 

 from insufficient planning, from undertaking more than can be done 

 thoroughly, and from failure to study the data as they need to be 

 studied. In some cases it is a result of following the practical phase 

 of the problem too closely and exclusively. 



A recent writer in commenting upon the experimental inquiry in 

 a given line said : " Unfortunately the trail of the ' practical man ' 

 was followed somewhat too closely in the investigations which were 

 made before the end of last century, with the result that many field 

 experiments have expressed the natural result of many conflicting 

 factors, and have given but little indication as to the components." 

 There is much truth in this statement, and it probably applies to 

 considerable of the experimental work of the present. It results 

 from the attempt to meet the expectations of the public by giving 

 direct answers to practical questions as speedily as possible. But in 

 this attempt it fails to realize that "the principle underlying an 

 agricultural problem must first be studied before the problem itself 

 can be solved." This is why at the outset close analysis of a prac- 

 tical agricultural question is essential, and the devising of a plan 

 which will give an intelligent and satisfying answer as far as it goes. 



The object of an experiment or an investigation is to secure defi- 

 nite information — to establish a fact, to test a theory, or to deter- 

 mine the application of certain results. The aim and the plan, -there- 

 fore, should be to give as distinct and conclusive an ansAver as is pos- 

 sible. It may not be complete but as far as it goes it ought to be 

 authentic and reliable. It should not be forgotten that the genuine- 

 ness of discovery is of first importance, and furthermore, that, as a 

 great lawgiver has said, to know the law we must understand the 

 law. Both are opposed to haste and superfi.ciality. 



In some of our undertakings the element of chance is at times un- 

 necessarily large. It does not fully take account of the experience 

 and the teachings of experimental work. Occasionally the prophecy 

 might almost be made at the outset that neither final nor probably 

 illuminating results would follow. The difficulty may be inherent in 

 the subject, because of lack of insufficient information leading up to 

 it; investigation may not have progressed far enough to enable con- 

 structive and conclusive work. This accounted for much of the 



