246 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



My plea is that we shall all try to make more nearly universal 

 the conditions that now obtain in the most favored localities. 



PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE 



Nothing in the way of scientific work can ever take the place 

 of business management on a farm. We ought all of us to teach 

 ourselves as much as possible; but we can also all of us learn 

 from others ; and the farmer can best learn how to manage his farm 

 even better than he now does by practice, under intelligent super- 

 vision on his own soil in such a way as to increase his income. 

 This is the kind of teaching which has been carried on in Texas, 

 Louisiana, and Arkansas by Doctor Knapp, of the national 

 Department of Agriculture. But much has been accomplished by 

 the growth of what is broadly designated as agricultural science. 

 This has been developed with remarkable rapidity during the 

 last quarter of a century, and the benefit to agriculture has been 

 great. As was inevitable, there was much error and much 

 repetition of work in the early application of money to the needs 

 of agricultural colleges and experiment stations aKke by the 

 nation and the several states. Much has been accomplished; 

 but much more can be accomplished in the future. The prime 

 need must always be for real research, resulting in scientific 

 conclusions of proved soundness. Both the farmer and the 

 legislature must beware of invariably demanding immediate 

 returns from investments in research efforts. It is probably 

 one of our faults as a nation that we are too impatient to wait a 

 sufficient length of time to accomphsh the best results; and in 

 agriculture effective research often, although not always, involves 

 slow and long-continued effort if the results are to be trust- 

 worthy. Wliile apphed science in agriculture as elsewhere must 

 be judged largely from the standpoint of its actual return in 

 dollars, yet the farmers no more than anyone else can afford to 

 ignore the large results that can be enjoyed because of broader 

 knowledge. The farmer must prepare for using the knowledge 



