6 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
considered as the outcome and natural sequence of this Canadian 
work. Copies of this paper and the larger number of the reports 
and bulletins of the Experimental Farms, which give fuller details 
of the work, are still available for those interested in the subject. 
Value of Science in Agriculture 
It may serve to emphasize our contention that practical agricul- 
ture is influenced for good by scientific research and, further, bring 
home to us the benefit that is accruing therefrom if we recite one or 
two concrete examples of the applications of scientific discovery to 
the practice of farming. 
One of the most interesting and basic in its influence is the appro- 
priation of nitrogen by the leguminosae. The ancients were aware 
that clover in some way enriched the soil, for we find it recorded in 
Roman literature that a crop, say of a cereal, produced a larger yield 
when following clover than when following a nonleguminous crop, say of 
grain. This fact practically lay dormant for ages: it received no 
application in general farming; its significance for centuries was not 
realized. Probably one reason for this neglect or oversight was the 
difficulty frequently met with on certain classes of soils in getting a 
“catch” of clover, and we may here remark that following the dis- 
covery of why the legumes were soil-enrichers came the knowledge 
of those conditions favourable for their growth. 
Chemistry was the first of the sciences to be applied to explain 
farming operations and to furnish the explanation of how plants and 
animals assimilate their food and to make clear the original sources of 
this food. During the nineteenth century, say from the time of Lie- 
big, who may justly be styled the father of agricultural chemistry, 
chemists in England, in Germany and in France were very busy in 
analysing soils, crops and animals and thus as analytical methods 
were evolved and multiplied there accumulated a vast number of 
data from which theories were evolved to explain the part taken by 
the soil, by water and the atmosphere in plant nutrition. The larger 
number of the earlier theories have passed away, having been shown 
by subsequent work that their premises were faulty, or from the fact 
that the data from which they were drawn were inaccurate. With 
the improvement of analytical methods the data became more and 
more accurate. 
The analyses of plants revealed the chemical elements of which 
they were composed; of these elements nitrogen was one. Analysis 
further showed, in connection with the problem we are discussing, 
that not only were the legumes richer in nitrogen, weight for weight 
