4 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
ously for the establishment and carrying on of the several agencies 
which work for the improvement of agriculture. In this our govern- 
ments may be said to have vied with one another with a result that 
Canada, considering her revenue, is probably to-day outdone by no 
country in the world in the maintenance of institutions and agencies. 
for the education of the farmer. Later in this address we shall attempt 
an enumeration of these agencies, but it may be noted here that the 
number of our Agricultural Colleges has increased very considerably 
in recent years and that Provincial Institutions of first importance 
are constantly increasing in their efficiency and adding to their teach- 
ing staffs and equipment. They are undoubtedly doing a most 
valuable educational work and are steadily widening and emphasizing 
their influence upon the practical farming of the Dominion. 
Though agriculture is not a science in the same sense that chem- 
istry, biology and physics are sciences, there is in a very real and vital 
sense a science of agriculture in which the basic sciences I have named 
and others are called upon to contribute towards the solution of 
problems affecting farming and to establish the truths which must 
furnish the foundation necessary for the. rational conduct and develop- 
ment of the art. To elaborate this thought somewhat: It is evident, 
in the first place, that agriculture is a vocation or occupation whereby 
men earn a livelihood and in which they till the soil, sow and harvest 
crops, feed and raise livestock. It is an art or craft, therefore, requiring 
skill and experience in manipulation for its successful prosecution. It 
is obvious that above all the farmer is'a director of agencies (for he 
himself creates nothing), agencies which involve the life of the soil, 
the life of plants, the life of animals. He ought to know how these 
agencies may best be directed and controlled. From this view, and 
I believe it is the correct one, the science of agriculture, as supplying 
the basis for all this work, is very largely a sub-division of our latest 
development in pure chemistry, bio-chemistry; I say largely, for it 
is not exclusively bio-chemistry; physics, meteorology, economics 
and other sciences must be called upon in the attempt to establish 
the truth and to mark the way for further progress in the art of farm- 
ing. 
Considering the ages that it has been practised, the art of agri- 
culture has unaided by science made but very slow progress. Ignor- 
ance of the nature of the factors involved, nay more, that there were 
any factors beyond those that were absolutely obvious and self 
evident, superstition, faulty observation leading to erroneous deduc- 
tions, the lack of mental alertness and clear thinking in tracing out 
cause and effect—which in the past have so peculiarly characterized 
those engaged on the land—the habit of mind and life that may be 
