plant, of when to apply it and when to withhold it. It is 

 the difference between merely empirical knowledge and 

 that which is based on scientific principles. 



When the contest comes between virgin soil and long 

 tilled land, the latter, no matter how rich it may once have 

 been, must needs be cultivated more intensively if it is to 

 hold its own. Intensive cultivation requires the aid of 

 special information and it is here that scientific agricul- 

 ture comes into play. Few people realize that, without 

 artificial fertilizers, the direct outcome of highly theoretical 

 work on the raw food stuffs of plants, much of the farm- 

 ing of today would be almost impossible. And the proper 

 use of fertilizers is but one of many questions. 



We are coming now in this country to a stage in its 

 development when scientific agriculture must be seriously 

 considered. Fortunately it is being so considered and 

 the federal and state establishments devoted to the inves- 

 tigation of these agricultural questions may confidently 

 be expected, I think, to help in the solving of the practical 

 economic questions that must arise in the competition of 

 our own agriculture with that of other lands. The way it 

 must be done is by the introduction of improved methods 

 based on carefully conducted scientific research, that 

 often find their stimulus in the highly theoretical investi- 

 gations of the pure scientist. Thus must the so-called 

 impractical devotee of science come in contact with the 

 practical man of affairs and furnish him knowledge that 

 can be used for the benefit of all. 



In this somewhat categorical fashion then, I have en- 

 deavored to present to you some of the content of the 

 science of botany; that science which consists of the dis- 

 membering of flowers and the giving to them of long 

 names. What its future will be is perhaps already indi- 

 cated, but briefly you can see that it is the direction 

 of physiological advance, away from pure taxonomy and 



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