64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



such a man of steam-ploughs and reapers and threshers, and he 

 will listen to you. Anything that will enable him to rob the 

 soil, he will have at once and bless the maker. But you might 

 as well persuade a man in Massachusetts to bottle up water in 

 winter lest all the springs and wells should fail in summer, as to 

 induce men so situated to spend time and thought and money 

 on scientific agriculture. They say they cannot afford to do it ; 

 and they cannot — they cannot afford at the price they sell, to 

 do anything but rob the soil. 



But I propose to narrow my discussion and consider the ob- 

 stacles in the way of those who really undertake the work as is 

 done by this Board and by many such bodies of men, and by 

 others who see the coming necessity for scientific agriculture and 

 believe in its possibilities. I propose to speak especially of 



FACTS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION. 



" Now what I want is Facts," said Mr. Gradgrind when lay- 

 ing down the principles of instruction. " In this life we want 

 nothing but facts, sir, nothing but facts." To the first proposi- 

 tion we agree fully, we want facts. To the second, that we 

 want nothing but facts, we object entirely. Facts are bricks or 

 blocks of stone, without which the building cannot be raised, 

 but their interpretation is the testing of every brick or stone and 

 the combining of it with others, so that it shall become of use as 

 part of a building rather than the part of a pile of rubbish of no 

 possible use in itself. 



As agriculturists we want facts and their interpretation, even 

 if we must be indebted to others for both of them ; but more 

 than this, we want power to secure facts for ourselves, and to 

 interpret them wisely for daily application in the business of 

 life. 



A fact in science is a thing established by observation or ex- 

 periment. It is a fact that all bodies are attracted by the 

 earth ; that some plants are killed by frost and others not in- 

 jured by it ; that water will not rise in a pump over thirty-six 

 feet, and that as you ascend a mountain water will boil at a 

 lower temperature than at its base. These are all facts, — things 

 not made or controlled by man, but learned by him. 



Now a full interpretation of these facts, as I use the word in- 

 terpretation to-night, includes two things, — ^first, the giving of 



