178 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



Station established not as an accessory but as a foundation in this 

 newest attempt at education for the practical professions of life. So it 

 was that research in agriculture was established in order to make 

 successful teaching possible, its employment as a means of advancement 

 for agriculture in general being a much later development. 



The broader view of agriculture as a national industry, and the 

 use of research for its general advancement, did not occur to the 

 minds of even the most advanced thinkers until about the opening of 

 the present century, when the findings of science within the field of 

 farming began to make it clear that research could do something more 

 than explain to students why certain practises are successful. For a 

 score of years now it has been clear that investigation and experimenta- 

 tion, indeed the very broadest conception of research, is capable not 

 only of explaining agricultural practise but also of rationalizing it 

 and advancing it ; in other words, of developing the business and the 

 life of farming, not only from the individual, but from the commu- 

 nity, the state, and even the national point of view. 



Stated in terms of logic, this is the day of the inductive method. 

 We are vastly concerned now about the many major premises with 

 which we are doing business. We are not so credulous as were our 

 ancestors. We have more tools to work with, more tests of supposed 

 truths, and we realize more than they could realize the untoward con- 

 sequences of proceeding upon false or inadequate assumptions. The 

 fact is that we have only begun the vast undertaking of interrogating 

 nature about this matter of agriculture, and to stop now or even 

 slacken effort would be of all forms of folly the most foolish. If we 

 be wise, therefore, we shall continue to prosecute our inquiries into 

 the mysteries of agriculture and its relations, linking close together 

 those three manifestations of the same service research, teaching, 

 and extension. And in doing that we shall, without abandoning any 

 of the old methods of inquiry, make use of certain new tools of our 

 trade lying ready to hand but hitherto not much employed. 



Chemistry has served us well; indeed until almost the present 

 day it has been about the only science that has been particularly fruit- 

 ful of results along agricultural lines. We shall continue to use it, 

 and it is no flight of fancy to predict that what has been found by the 

 chemist in the past is but a tithe of what awaits his achievement in the 

 future. But we must harness other agencies physics, for example. 

 Undoubtedly we feed the young mainly for body building, but we feed 

 the horse as we stoke the boiler or furnish gasoline to the motor 

 for the energy that may be developed. To be sure, the horse operates 

 his own repair shop with highly skilled mechanicians, but we keep 



