THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



DEMONSTRATION VERSUS EXPERIMENT 



The word demonstration is often confused with the word 

 "experiment." There is a clear distinction here which 

 is important. An experiment is "an effort to learn the 

 truth" and the term implies at least that the truth is not 

 fully known. A demonstration is a "pointing out with 

 proof" and assumes that the truth is known. When a 

 subject is yet in the experimental stage it is not ready for 

 demonstration. Unfortunately, this is too much the case 

 with many of our marketing problems at the present time. 

 More research work must be done and more truth learned 

 about marketing before solutions to some phases of the 

 problem at least can be demonstrated. 



There is a type of work which lies in the borderland 

 between the experimental and the demonstrable. It is the 

 application of a well-known principle or general fact to 

 a specific locality or problem and involves a certain amount 

 of trial to learn whether the principle is applicable or 

 adaptable to the local condition. Such a trial, which may 

 be both an experiment and a demonstration, or neither one, 

 is sometimes called a test. Such a test might be the appli- 

 cation of lime or acid phosphate to the soil in a region 

 where the land was known to be usually deficient in these 

 ingredients and their absence generally a limiting factor. 

 The question of whether or not it will pay to make the 

 application, and if so in what amounts, may also be in- 

 volved. These are not academic distinctions as they may 

 seem to some, but real differences whose clear recognition 

 will aid sound thinking and wise practice. 



Loose use of the term demonstration to mean almost any 

 talk or lecture where illustrative material is used should 

 be discouraged. Emphasis should be placed upon the fact 



