28 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION II. 



definite object or ideal to be aimed at. striving to attain that aim 

 by scientific methods of procedure, well thought out and matured. 

 He went on to say that : 



" this will involve a definite plan of operations, a thorough consideration of 

 what is known of the subject and its bearings, both practical and scientific." 

 " Too often " (he further said) " there appears to be lacking any well-thought- 

 out plan or object ; this is developed piece-meal, and lacks in directness." 



Let me give just one hint here in passing. If we want the young 

 men of this great country to become trained and efficient investi- 

 gators, they must, from the very start, be drilled into being 

 systematic. This obviously cannot be unless those who train 

 and instruct them have themselves fully realised what the word 

 " system " means. Just here, I think, lies a weak spot in the 

 future scientific advance of this land : it is a weakness which 

 should begin to be dealt with at a comparatively early age. for 

 often, by the time University status is attained, the student has 

 already been made or marred as an investigator. 



To return to the subject of " investigation," it is a word that 

 irritates many so-called " practical " men, who are in the habit 

 of stigmatising it as " theory." And even of those who do not 

 look askance at investigation, but. on the contrary, admit its 

 value and importance, a large number are up in arms directly one 

 speaks of research. How is that ? Director Armsby of the 

 Penns^'lvania State Agricultural College once touched the core 

 of this objection in a single sentence. He described research as 

 investigation directed to answering the question " why ? " — that 

 is, directed to the study of underlying principles. Now, the class 

 of men under consideration are impatient of abstract principles 

 and theories, but welcome what they call " practical investiga- 

 tions," forgetting that it is only by crystallising into shape those 

 very theories and principles that anything at all practical can 

 eventuate. 



" The word ' practical ' (says Prof. Hilgard, of California University)* 

 has been much abused in connection with agricultural science and practice ; 

 it is launched against us as a kind of thunderbolt both by the men who wholly 

 disbelieve in the application of science to agriculture, as well as by the poli- 

 tician who tries to make capital by denouncing our agricultural experiment 

 stations for pursuing any line of research which does not appear to him to 

 bear directly upon the operations of the farm." 



The objection which many friends of investgiation have to 

 research is due to the relation between the two classes of enquiry 

 being analogous to that between applied and pure science ; but 

 that very analogy shows the absurdity of the objection, for the 

 application of science to utilitarian ends presupposes that some 

 science must have been studied ere there could be any to apply. 

 Investigation is of undoubted importance and value, but almost 

 all the discoveries of science were made by those who were directing 

 their attention to pure research. Unfortunately this is a fact 

 but little appreciated, even in Great Britain. Thoughtful men are 

 beginning to recognise in this a national weakness, and the note 



* " The objects and methods of soil analysis," Proc. of Soc. for promotion 

 of Agr. Sc, 1 8th Ann. Meeting, p. 21. 



