MILDEWS. 41 



care and often so sadly reduce their yield even where they do not 

 utterly destroy them. And the greater part of the studies of these 

 parasites which are carried on have this practical end in view. 

 But it must be remembered, and this point cannot be emphasized 

 too stronglj', that direct experiments in prevention or cure, without 

 a sound and thorough knowledge of the nature of the trouble, are 

 merely leaps in the dark, with as little chance of success as the 

 random treatment of a human disease whose etiology is not yet 

 a matter of scientific knowledge. In other words, the theoretical 

 must, as a rule, precede the practical and serve as its basis, if it 

 is to be effective and truly practical. Furthermore, investigations 

 of this character take time — almost unlimited time. Nature does 

 not give up her secrets on demand but only as the reward of cool, 

 quiet, patient application. It is only fair, then, to ask those who 

 are at least no more anxious for results than we who are plodding 

 away at these problems, and who have less at stake than we, to be 

 also patient. The work is progressing slowly, but all the more 

 surely, for the real workers as yet are few. Far better, however, 

 that there should be still fewer and of the real sort, than any 

 more of that sort who proclaim a "new discovery" for every 

 month and make the name of " Scientist" a reproach. 



But the practical men who furnish the moral support and, 

 directly or indirectly, the money which gives to us modest and 

 timid " scientific fellows" the equipments and ©pportunities we 

 must have to produce results, are just waking to the importance 

 and significance of the thorough scientific study of these pests 

 whose inroads on their profits are 3'early greater. They begin to 

 realize that it is economy to spend thousands to secure the saving 

 of tens and hundreds of thousands, and that even pure science 

 may not be such a totally Utopian thing, after all. And just here 

 lies the real hope for the future. The investigator must feel that 

 he has the financial and moral support of those in whose interest 

 he is working, and to retain these he must produce substantial 

 results. But to produce results which shall stand the test of 

 practice requires sound and thorough training, and this will be 

 demanded in an increasing degree as our knowledge increases and 

 the relations of science and practice become more harmonious. 

 Thus we ma}' hope that by a process of progressive development, 

 with the survival of the fittest onl}', sensational science will finally 

 be unknown except from the records of the past. 



