EDITORIAL. ■ ^ 507 



truth, the existence of which we take for granted. We use our ap- 

 proximations as best we may, treating them in large part and at least 

 for the time being as if they were accurately true, yet meanwhile we 

 remain alert to better them. This has long been the standard of 

 scientific thought." 



The kernel of this interesting discussion is tersely summed up in 

 the following sentences : " The method of science is not special or 

 peculiar to it, but only a perfected application of our human resources 

 of observation and reflection — to use the words of Von Baer, the 

 greatest embryologist. To secure reliability the method of science is, 

 first^ to record everything with which it deals, the phenomena them- 

 selves and the inferences of the individual investigators, and to record 

 both truly; second^ to verify and correlate the personal knowledges 

 until they acquire impersonal validity, which means in other words 

 that the conclusions approximate so closely to the absolute truth that 

 we can be safely and profitably guided by them. The method of 

 science is no mystic process. On the contrary, it is as easily compre- 

 hended as it is infinitely difficult to use perfectly, and at its best the 

 method supplies merely available approximations to the absolute. 



" We set science upon the throne of imagination, but we have 

 crowned her with modesty, for she is at once the reality of human 

 power and the personification of human fallibility." 



We have great need in our agricultural investigation of a high 

 realization of the method of research. This does not apply alone to 

 the work carried on under the Adams fund, but should guide all the 

 experimental activities of the stations, for it is that which dis- 

 tinguishes their work and deductions from those of everyday opin- 

 ion. How essential, then, that the independent worker in every de- 

 partment of the subject should be thoroughly imbued with this 

 method and all that it implies. 



Although the research in agriculture is mainly in the field of ap- 

 plied science, we are realizing more fully eveiy year that it must reach 

 down to the fundamental and theoretical phases of the subject. We 

 make sure progress only as this is done. The line between pure and 

 applied science is largely an imaginary one, and research on a prac- 

 tical subject often leads over into the realm of pure science before it is 

 realized. The main difference between these two kinds of science is 

 the immediate purpose of the student and the limitation which he 

 feels himself under. Pure science of to-day becomes highly prac- 

 tical and applied science to-morrow or next year, and the method 

 and principles of both are the same. The process by which knowl- 

 edge is acquired for a utilitarian end and the product itself are as 

 pure as the most abstruse and theoretical studies. 

 87402°— No. 6—11 2 



