TRUE RELATION OF SCIENCE TO INDUSTRIES 291 



be enough to affirm now that whenever the Government 

 sees fit to go to even a moderate outlay, science stands 

 ready to put every farmer in the country en rapport 

 with the Signal Office in Washington. 



And since it thus appears that the Signal Service 

 is chiefly for the benefit of that industry which raises 

 our crops, and the one that carries them beyond the 

 sea, cannot one pardon a suspicion that the Signal 

 Service might do better under the peaceful flag of the 

 Department of Agriculture than beneath the red and 

 raging banner of the War Office ? But this is a thought 

 which must only be whispered in desert places, in tones 

 as tremulous as the timidity with which it is now sug- 

 gested. 



BIOLOGY. 



That part of biology which I shall mention as pe- 

 culiarly beneficial to agriculture has reference to the 

 study of domesticated and useful animals and plants, 

 and the laws of their variation and improvement. I am 

 aware that this theme, in a strictly etymological sense, 

 does not fall under the head of agriculture; but, by 

 immemorial usage, it has become a part of agriculture, 

 since every farmer makes use of animals in doing the 

 work of his farm, and is also, to a greater or less ex- 

 tent, a keeper of herds and flocks. Whatever, there- 

 fore, tends to improve the character or quality of his 

 domesticated animals proves of immediate or ultimate 

 advantage to the farmer. 



In this way the science of biology in its special 

 branches of variation, heredity, and natural and inten- 

 tional selection has been of the greatest benefit to agri- 

 culture. As with the other sciences, so with this, we 

 believe that the good which it has already done is but a 

 beginning of what it will eventually accomplish. 



