No. 4.] DAIRYING. 105 



cloak." It must and ought to yield results helpful in the 

 solution of economic problems. 



One of the speakers at the recent convention of the Asso- 

 ciation of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations stated that, so far as their relationship to the ex- 

 periment station movement was concerned, farmers might 

 be classified in three groups : those who had no faith in it, 

 those who had unbounded faith in it, and those who knew 

 nothing at all about it. The attitude of each of these groups 

 constitutes a menace to the enterprise of scientific investi- 

 gation in agriculture. Those who have no faith are hostile, 

 of course ; those who still in this year of our Lord are un- 

 informed of the existence and activities of so widespread 

 and beneficent a movement — and there are more of them 

 than we realize — as a rule recruit the ranks of the un- 

 believers as fast as they "get wise"; while the friends of 

 the application of science to the practical affairs of life are 

 apt to embarrass its votaries by over-large expectations, 

 and, being disappointed, often become disillusioned if not 

 disgruntled. There is much wisdom in the advice of the 

 darky philosopher which says that ' ' Blessed am dey what 

 don't expect much, 'cos dey don't get disappointed." They 

 find, or think they find, that the theory does not work out 

 in fact ; that the scientific exposition does not justify itself 

 when put to the test of every-day usage ; that the preach- 

 ment of the ideal cannot be met in the performance of the 

 practical ; that, in short, practice falls so far short of precept 

 as to be but little guided thereby. Is this mental attitude 

 a sane one? Does the aoricultural investio-ator overshoot 

 the mark? Are his laboratory-born dictums una})plical3le 

 in every-day affairs? Yes, and No. There are dangers in 

 both directions. On the one hand is the investio-ator who 

 neither clearly sees the practical bearings of his Avork nor 

 knows how to apply it; and on the other hand is he who 

 jumps at conclusions, who looks only for the practical ap- 

 plication to the detriment of thorough Avork. The one has 

 his head in the clouds ; the other, in the soil. The one 

 fashions air castles sometimes, but he often lays founda- 

 tions ; the other builds his house upon the sands. 



