66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



case in which it can be done, and we want the facts made the 

 basis of sound induction for our use. 



It is in this way alone that every science advances ; and un- 

 less agriculture can advance in this way, it can lay no claim to 

 be regarded as a science ; while it is compelled to rest upon 

 isolated facts alone, it is bald empiricism. And while its sup- 

 posed facts are many of them errors, or at most of only local 

 value, there must be constant blundering even when dealing in 

 facts alone, and any induction from erroneous data must be use- 

 less or worse. 



Certain agricultural facts are of no use to science. It may be 

 a fact that a certain hillside produces excellent grapes, but that 

 fact alone is of no value except to the owner or future purchaser 

 of the place. But now give us the composition of the soil and 

 the other conditions which produced the crop, and you have given 

 us something which will guide us in our attempts to secure a 

 grape crop in other places. But you say the conditions are com- 

 plex, and to analyze them and give the composition of soil, the 

 influence of climate and peculiar cultivation, is a difficult thing 

 to do. Exactly so. And this leads me to observe that as we 

 come into the kingdom of life, we find every fact depending upon 

 so many conditions, and these so intricate in their nature, that, 

 while the fact may be accepted by all, it may be as useless in 

 science as the fact that my neighbor has a vineyard where grapes 

 grow well, while neither he nor any other person can give any 

 reason why they should grow there at all. Almost everything 

 connected with practical agriculture has much of this com- 

 plexity. Certain facts of a general nature are known to all in 

 regard to plant growth and the propagation and care of animals. 

 But when a question of interest arises, put that question into an 

 agricultural paper and then cut out and paste side by side the 

 answers you obtain. Do this with every question that arises 

 connected with the management of any farm, and you will have 

 a common-place book that will be amusing if not instructive. In 

 one point it could not fail of being highly instructive, however ; 

 it would show the number of questions settled — that the num- 

 ber of facts that can be relied upon in practice on the farm or 

 as an aid to induction is much smaller than is generally sup- 

 posed ; while the questions yet undecided are literally without 

 number. 



