EDITORIAL. • 403 



something developed from the resources within the individual. The 

 information on which it is based is usually regarded as personal 

 and as having come out of experience and shrewd reasoning. There 

 is little discrimination between such information and that which has 

 been absorbed from reading, institute lectures, and the like. Indeed, 

 many a man credited with large common sense probably does not 

 realize the actual source of his information and power. 



Common sense, whether of high or low degree, is in effect a product 

 of reason and judgment applied to the facts and conditions as they 

 are seen. It rests upon information and its interpretation. So does 

 science. There is some very bad common sense, as there may be bad 

 science. 



Scientific facts are derived -more accurately than personal impres- 

 sions, b}'' providing conditions which tend to guard against error 

 or misconstruction. Because the facts developed by scientific methods 

 are accurate, dependable, unprejudiced, and not influenced by purely 

 local conditions, they furnish a safe basis for intelligent reasoning 

 along either practical or scientific lines. The scientific method of 

 deduction is more cautious and more restricted in its generalizations 

 than personal judgment may be, but as far as it goes there is nothing 

 antagonistic in it to good common sense. The substitution of facts 

 derived in a manner to make them thoroughly reliable, in the place 

 of current notions, traditions and observations, instead of detracting 

 from the practical value and reliability of personal judgment 

 strengthens it and makes it a safer basis for action. 



There is no reason why the practical man's judgment should not 

 be based on the best and safest sources of information available, and 

 this is exactly what is taking place, whether it is fully realized or 

 not. As a matter of fact, science is becoming more and more an aid 

 to sane and logical practical judgment in agricultural affairs. The 

 more science furnishes the means for intelligent understanding and 

 this understanding becomes disseminated among the people, the more 

 common and reliable may " common sense " be, and the further will 

 it be removed from the elements of mysticism, superstition, and 

 dogma. Confidence in it will not suffer by reason of this change, 

 for it will then rest upon intelligence in the things that actually are, 

 combined with sound judgment and clear thinking. 



There will always be abundant call for the exercise of keen judg- 

 ment in every branch of farming — not that science is unpractical 

 but that its application may not be practical or economic under a 

 given set of conditions. It has not always been given a practical 

 interpretation or harmonized with the conditions of practical farm- 

 ing. Our science, so far as it is recommended to the practical man, 

 should be able to stand the common-sense test, i. e., the test of prac- 

 tical trial or of good practical judgment. If it does not, the fault 



