604 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOKD. 



should be better, more searching, and more conchisive than Avhat has 

 precedl^l it. How else can the expenditure of time and money be 

 warranted, or the rightful ambitions of the investigator be satisfied ? 



Of course, we must find out whether what we know^ is true, but this 

 usually implies more than simple repetition unless we are dealing 

 with tradition. What we Imow is a product of reasoning from what 

 has been definitely found out, and this at best is uncertain when our 

 knowledge is in a transition stage, as much of it is which relates to 

 agriculture. But the purpose of investigation is advancement, 

 ^vhether it be in extending the boundaries or in checking up what has 

 been accepted as true. In either case it will not be characterized by 

 duplication or repetition, but by a new point of view or method of 

 attack. 



The French scientist Berthelot once said, " If each of us adds some- 

 thing to the common domain in the field of science or art or moral- 

 ity, it is because a long series of generations have lived, worked, 

 thought, and suffered before us." And an American scientist has 

 enlarged upon this idea in defining the means by which knowledge 

 grows: "Piece by piece must new truths be found and correlated. 

 Each investigator must rest his work upon that of others. He must 

 stand on the shoulders of the past if he is to look into the future. To 

 know what has gone before is only possible where accumulated rec- 

 ords are at hand." 



Eecognition of this has been the leading motive in preparing and 

 issuing this journal, as a world review of new literature in agricul- 

 tural science, — to enable the workers in that field to have access to 

 the latest work and theoiy relating to their field. But research in 

 agriculture is now reaching out so far into the basic sciences that 

 no single abstract journal can meet all its needs, and other aids are 

 necessary. This is the justification for spending money given for 

 investigation in the purchase of scientific journals and books, and 

 in their proper care. 



As experimentation progresses we not only discover new phe- 

 nomena, but in those we thought we knew unforeseen aspects reveal 

 themselves. This is notably true in agricultural investigation. A 

 thorough study of the experiments, even the simpler ones, if properly 

 framed, reveals new facts or new means of advancement. Unless 

 they receive adequate study or are builded on previous findings they 

 become a round of mechanical routine, devoid of the prime essen- 

 tials of productive experimentation. 



It is sometimes advantageous to pause in doing and consider the 

 nature of the end product. The experiment or the series of trials 

 may meet all the accepted rules of procedure and follow the usual 

 channels, but Avill they add another link in the chain of evidence or 



