RELATION OF BIOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE S4i 



The main, if not the only direct service of zoology has been given 

 through the subject of entomology. Although some of the most dan- 

 gerous enemies of plants are still beyond control, such as the boll 

 weevil, yet their habits are understood and the crops on which they 

 prey can still be grown with only a fraction of the loss that would be 

 sustained had the habits and life history of such pests not been made 

 known. Other pests have either been eradicated or rendered so nearly 

 controllable as to permit of our safely disturbing the balance of nature 

 by devoting large areas to special crops of such plants as are not en- 

 couraged in the natural state. 



The Zoologists' Inability to Aid Breeders 



"We should naturally expect zoology to throw considerable light upon 

 the laws of heredity and upon possible methods of so modifying forms 

 and functions of our animals as to give us more intelligent control of 

 those great factors in agriculture. It is true that a most wonderful 

 improvement of all classes of farm animals has been effected; from a 

 few unpromising native stocks, numerous and distinct varieties have 

 been evolved, each one having distinctive characters of value, either in 

 special adaptability to specific conditions and systems of agriculture, 

 or in capacity to yield a superior product, or, as is true of many breeds, 

 combining some degree of excellence in both respects. 



In this fascinating and valuable work, however, there has been little 

 or nothing that could properly be called scientific, unless we should re- 

 gard as science an accumulation of facts regarding occurrences the 

 explanations of which have not been attempted by the breeders and not 

 altogether successfully undertaken, as yet, by the zoologists. 



The fact that zoology has given so little that could be utilized by the 

 breeder is no reflection upon the zoologists. Their problem has been a 

 difficult one, and until a science assumes a form of some definiteness, it 

 is too early to expect any of its principles to be followed out into their 

 operation in economic affairs, particularly when, as in zoology, supposed 

 facts are being dethroned and the evolution of the science seems hardly 

 begun. 



The discoverer of important principles can not be expected to also 

 assume the duty of interpreting his science to practise. He works for 

 the acquisition of knowledge and the understanding of natural law in 

 its broadest relations and is seldom qualified to give a scientific aspect 

 to productive labors, even if willing to attempt such a task. 



It can truthfully be stated that biology, as one of the sciences, is the 

 newest and least definite of them all, unless we except, perhaps, psy- 

 chology. This is not because great minds have not been occupied with 

 it, for what other study has engaged such illustrious and widely-known 

 men as Darwin and Wallace and Spencer and Galton and Huxley of 

 England, and such as Lamarck in France and Weismann in Germany ? 



