PECULIAR DIFFICULTIES OF AGRICULTURE. 63 



that as collections of facts are of great value to agriculturists. 

 But to the minds of many, his facts disprove his own theory, 

 while others accept the theory as legitimately drawn from the 

 facts, and many more accept it on account of its boldness and 

 the acknowledged learning of its author. 



Science is of slow growth. And if at times there seems to 

 be a sudden advance, we shall find that materials had long been 

 preparing and at the right time the master mind appeared to 

 utilize those materials and by his brilliant results arouse other 

 minds to great activity in the same fields. Linnaeus and Cu- 

 vier are good examples of such great masters, not to mention, 

 some who are now living. 



Every science has its own obstacles in the way of its advance. 

 The more complex the science, the greater the number of those 

 obstacles. The nearer a science comes to every day life, the 

 more prejudice does every new movement encounter, and the 

 greater becomes the difficulty of reaching truth amid the abun- 

 dant conflicting testimony. I need only mention the sciences 

 of medicine and political economy to remind my hearers what 

 diverse views are held by men of apparently equal ability and 

 with the same opportunities for observation. 



■ Agriculture has its peculiar difficulties as well as such as are 

 common to all complex sciences. It is well for us to set those 

 difficulties distinctly before ourselves and the community, that 

 we may see how to attack them successfully, and have that aid 

 from the community which the work demands. 



Agriculture as an art has in the past been sufficient for most of 

 the world, and the same is true to-day. The world is supplied 

 with food. The question to-day all through the great West is, not 

 so much how they can raise more , as it is where they shall find a 

 market for what they have. And right at this point we meet an 

 obstacle to the progress of scientific agriculture where many 

 people supposed it would have the most favorable conditions for 

 advance. The very richness and boundless extent of our soil is an 

 insuperable obstacle to the advance of scientific agriculture in 

 some parts of our country. Why talk to a man of scientific agri- 

 culture, when all the agricultural science in the world cannot pre- 

 pare such a soil for our great staples as he can buy for a dollar and 

 a quarter an acre — where the only question is how to get the seed 

 in, the grain harvested and carried to market ! You may talk to 



