SIGNIFICANCE OF HIS WORK 



tared. It was concentrated and consciously aimed. His ex- 

 tensive field tests, his more refined experiments, and his 

 laboratory investigations, whatever their grade, were parts of 

 a greater whole which centered in some phase of a broad, gen- 

 eral problem. They aimed at developing a method, a system, 

 a principle. 



This was indeed an important quality of his activity, and 

 well illustrates an attribute of thorogoing investigation which 

 itself imposes quite definite limitations on the output. It was 

 a quality which enabled him in the end to accomplish so much 

 that was worth while. It showed the breadth and depth of his 

 view, an intelligence about his whole subject which was not 

 vaporized in the pursuit of small, disconnected parts. The 

 man who has no vision beyond unrelated comparisons of this 

 treatment with that, measurement and quality of soil particles, 

 composition and form of materials, but becomes lost in their 

 study for themselves, fails to see the forest on account of 

 the trees. The conspicuous names in agricultural investiga- 

 tion are of those who have had a broad, philosophical grasp of 

 their subject, as had Doctor Hopkins, which guided every step 

 and molded the product into a symmetrical whole. 



While Doctor Hopkins was interested in the practical 

 applications of knowledge, he was not concerned in merely 

 practical work without knowledge. This is an important dis- 

 tinction which marks the man of science. He sought first the 

 truth, and he adopted every known means to insure it. He 

 was content, furthermore, to make haste slowly if safely. As 

 it is a function of science to interpret human experience, he 

 gave close study to the practices and views of leading farmers, 

 and he took account of their experience in relation to current 

 views. Such an interpretation requires a high degree of skill 

 and caution, for while, rightly interpreted, all experience is 

 useful, it may be potentially a source of grave error. He had 

 keen insight and powers of observation, and an analytical mind 

 which subjected every result to critical scrutiny. He usually 



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