No. 4.] GERMAN EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 379 



nearly complete enough in data to ena])le scientific men 

 to determine whether anything had really Ix'on jiroved, or not. 



I have said that the German is in a sense a specialist, in 

 that he confines himself to fewer lines of incjuiry, and 

 studies them more fully. He devotes himself, perchance, to 

 a single subject for years, uses all the methods that science 

 has placed at his command, and by and by out of this 

 abstract research one hears the cry, Eureka! and agri- 

 culture is advanced a step. 



I have said, further, that our German brother has no 

 law com[)elling him to pulilish results every three months, 

 whether he has any results to pul)lish or not. Hers, I be- 

 lieve, is one of the weaknesses in our American stations. 

 There is a great pressure upon them all the time for results. 

 Give us some practical results, cries the farmer, and give 

 them often ; just as though the experiment station worker 

 had but to turn the crank and grind them out ! The result 

 of this demand is to cause a great deal of inferior work to 

 be done, that can l)e of no permanent value. Gentlemen, 

 remember that when you ask a man to investigate problems 

 in the animal or vegetal)le world, it is no easy task that you 

 have o-iven him to do. Do not criticise him for beino- scien- 

 tific, and declare that you want only practical men. If to 

 comprehend the laws governing the nutrition of that won- 

 derful piece of machinery, the animal body ; if to understand 

 the anatomical structure of the plant, the physiological 

 meaning of its various organs, and its most economical nutri- 

 tion — does not require the aid of al)out all the science that 

 the best of us are able to command, then I am entirely 

 mistaken. Far be it from me to decry men of good, hard 

 common sense, — practical men, if you will ; but I do })lead 

 in addition that they possess a thorough scientific training. 

 Let me illustrate. You enter a large dry goods store, and 

 see perchance spread out before you a great variety of silks 

 of the most beautiful shades of color. You ask. How is it 

 possible to obtain such a great variety, such a wealth of 

 color? I will tell you. It is a triumph of science. When 

 that great chemist, the late A. W. von Hoffman, with his 

 wonderful chemical knowledge, discovered the aniline, all 

 that was made possible. 



