706 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOM). 



But essential and helpful as is hypothesis, experiment is, in the sub- 

 jects with which agricultural research deals, the sole source of truth. 

 It alone can teach us anything new ; it alone can give us certainty. 



Success in research depends not alone on skill and ingenuity in 

 planning experiments, but on foresight in generalizing from the 

 facts secured. The scientist must be able to look beyond what the 

 bare facts demonstrate, and to derive suggestions from them. A 

 o-ood experiment has been defined as one whijch informs us of some- 

 thing besides an isolated fact — which enables us to foresee through 

 o-eneralization. For without generalization Imowledge is impossible. 



Aside from its own intrinsic value each demonstrated fact enables 

 the investigator to foresee other apparent facts, the essential features 

 of which must be verified by experiment at the first opportunity, 

 but which in the meantime enable further foresight, although with- 

 out absolute certainty. As experiments are time-consuming, Imowl- 

 edge can never be fully supported on verified experiments, hence it 

 is necessary to get the utmost possible nimiber of predictions from 

 every experiment, and with the highest possible degree of probability. 

 Generalization must be directed in such a manner as to increase " the 

 yield of science." 



" Knowledge is not a gift of bare experience nor even made solely 

 out of experience." The creative activity of the mind is an im- 

 portant essential in its derivation. We report facts, and we say 

 we let them speak for themselves. But as we investigate we inevi- 

 tably interpret the results as well as record them. Research leads 

 outside the field of human experience • and beyond experiment, and 

 through constructive reasoning extends the boundaries of knowledge. 



These things point to the necessity for reflection in productive re- 

 search. The experiment is only a means to an end ; the fact in and 

 of itself may be barren if merely observed and chronicled. It is 

 the skill and foresight of the investigator in deriving his facts, and 

 the use which he is capable of making of these facts in seeing rela- 

 tions which are not obvious to the layman, supporting and develop- 

 ing his hypothesis, and guiding his further experiments, that de- 

 termine his research ability. The unreasoning making of experi- 

 ments bears no stamp of originality, leads nowhere except by the 

 sheerest chance, and is not of the nature of research. It is what the 

 scientist puts into the contemplation of the facts, the point of view 

 they give him, and the further plans they suggest to his mind that 

 make them virile. 



This means that the investigator must be a student as well as an 

 experimenter, must study his results critically to determine their 

 true significance and relationship and reach, and interpret them in 

 their bearing on his hypothesis. Unless he can take the time for this 

 he will often miss the significant points in his experiments, will not 



