48 Twciify-si.vfli Annual Meeting 



from the fact tliat we were not always sure we were putting the 

 right thing in the right place, or perhaps at the right time; and 

 I am strongly impressed with the idea that this society can, by 

 being a stimulant, as it were, enlist in aid of the great brother- 

 hood of iish culturists everywhere, the scientific and the prac- 

 tical, and the political, if we must, in one grand army of men 

 who are resolved to make their day and generation an epoch 

 of results in this class of work. (A])[)]ause.) 



Prof. l)irge: I would like to say one word in indorsement 

 of Professor ReigharcTs paper, and as to, the necessity of scientific 

 study and the length of time to reach results. Let us con- 

 sider what is being done in the investigation of agriculture. I 

 do not know what you are doing in Michigan, I presume it is 

 the same thing as in Wisconsin, where there are between $75,000 

 and $80,000 spent annually by the State and National govern- 

 ments in the scientific investigation of agricultural problems. 

 That is on top of the millions of dollars which have ])een spent 

 in general chemical investigation which Ijcars on the problems 

 and the other millions of dollars which are spent by foreign gov- 

 ernments and our own government in the investigation of special 

 agricultural problems. Now, in spite of this great expenditure 

 of money and of the efforts of (|uite an army of scientific men, 

 thev are just making a beginning in their knowledge. Now. while, 

 as Professor Reighard has just said, the biology of the fresh water 

 lake is a more simple problem than the biology of the field, it is 

 by no means a simple problem. It is one which must be worked 

 at from a scientific standpoint for a great many years before 

 practical results will follow with the same kind of certainty that 

 the agricultural chemist reaches his practical results to-day. We 

 have not that degree of knowledge of the conditions of fish life 

 that the agricultural chemists of the field when the agricul- 

 tural stations were established. We have not one per cent, of the 

 amount of information which was at their conmiand at that time, 

 and the work which scientific men do, and which they must do 

 for a great many years to come, will very largely be in the direc- 

 tion of pioneer work, obtaining such information as die 

 chemists obtained before the agricultural chemists went to 

 work. It seems to me the attitude which this society takes it a 

 reasonable one; that the scientific work must be done without 

 anticipation of immediate practical results, in order to lay the 

 foundation for securing practical results in the future such as 

 agriculturalists are getting now from their experimental stations. 



