322 Transactions of the American Institute. 



only be thus made eminently ])eneficial to the whole community, 

 through experimental farms. 



That experiment and demonstration must conlirm them'y and estab- 

 lish its claim to be called science^ and command the respect of the 

 masses as practical, I would cite the concurrent testimony of nearly 

 all writers and legislators upon the subject, yet even some of these 

 self-same individuals have been regarded as the authority for agricul- 

 tural colleges. Certainly they have never presented anything better 

 in a tangible form, notwithstanding the evidence is that the investi- 

 gating mind has long been drifting towards experimental develoj/nient 

 as the true source of agricultural progress. 



Mr, Coleman, who traveled extensively in Europe, and published 

 his observations and gleanings in two of the most instructive and 

 interesting volumes extant upon the subject, and who has been more 

 quoted as authority for our agricultural colleges than any other, says: 

 *' Mere theory I distrust ; self-conceit, which is often harmless, amuses 

 me ; unfounded pretensions I hold at their true value, and low, inter- 

 ested quackery I despise," and asks, " what is science ? He answers : 

 " Not merely the knowledge of books ; not merely a familiarity with 

 the technical rules of any art ; not mere hypothesis and conjecture, 

 however subtle and profound, but the observation and the accumula- 

 tion of facts ; the following them out in their relations and bearings 

 and the tracing, as tar as human sagacity can go, all the circumstances 

 and influences of which they appear to folloM'-, as the necessary conse- 

 quence and results.'" " This," he adds, " is the work of mind wherever 

 mind is found." 



Again, he says, " What I want to see is tlie universal mind awake. 

 All the practical operations of husl)andry furnish ample material for 

 inquiry and reflection ; and inquisitive and reflective minds con- 

 stantly engaged in them, have some peculiar advantages in the study 

 of them, over philosophers exclusively confined to their closets and 

 laboratories.^^ 



What a commentary is this in favor of the practical and experi- 

 mental, added to the mere scholastic, and from one who had investi- 

 gated the su])ject in all of its bearings and phases, both in America 

 and Europe. 



Again, I quote, in the preface to Law's translation of " Boussin- 

 gault's Chemistry Applied to Agriculture," the author says : " I liave 

 thus been led, in addition to my own observations, to give those of 

 numerous writers on almost everv branch of agricultural science, 



