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M.—AGRICULTURE, 269 
only rarely does some more gifted worker show something of the great 
pattern which the threads compose. But even the most gifted can see but 
little of the design ; the best hope of seeing more is to induce people to work 
in groups of two or three, each trained in a different school and therefore 
looking at the problem from a different point; each seeing something 
hidden from the rest. Unlike art, science lends itself to this kind of team 
work; art is purely an individual interpretation of Nature, while science 
aims at a faithful description of Nature, all humanistic interpretation being 
eliminated. There is certainly sufficient good-will among the leaders of 
agricultural science to justify the hope of co-operation ; there are probably 
in existence foundations which would furnish the financial aid. 
And that leads to my last point. Whatisthe purpose ofitall? Team 
work, co-operation, the great expenditure of time and money now being 
incurred in agricultural science and experiment—these are justified only 
if the end is worthy of the effort. The nineteenth century took the 
view that agricultural science was justified only in so far as it was useful. 
That view we now believe to be too narrow. The practical purpose is of 
course essential; the station must help the farmer in his daily difficulties— 
which again necessitates co-operation, this time between the practical 
grower and the scientific worker. But history has shown that institutions 
and investigators that tie themselves down to purely practical problems do 
not get very far; all experience proves that the safest way of making 
advances, even for purely practical purposes, is to leave the investigator 
unfettered. Our declared aim at Rothamsted is ‘ to discover the principles 
underlying the great facts of agriculture and to put the knowledge thus 
gained into a form in which it can be used by teachers, experts, and farmers 
for the upraising of country life and the improvement of the standard of 
farming.’ 
This wider purpose gives the investigator full latitude, and it justifies 
an investigation whether the results will be immediately useful or not—so 
long as they are trustworthy. For the upraising of country life necessitates 
a higher standard of education for the countryman ; and education based 
on the wonderful book of Nature which lies open for all to read if they but 
could. How many farmers know anything about the remarkable structure 
of the soil they till, of its fascinating history, of the teeming population 
of living organisms that dwell in its dark recesses ; of the wonderful wheel 
of life in which the plant takes up simple substances and in some mysterious 
way fashions them into foods for men and animals and packs them with 
energy drawn out of the sunlight—energy which enables us to move and 
work, to drive engines, motor-cars, and all the other complex agencies of 
modern civilisation ? No one knows much of these things ; but if we knew 
more, and could tell it as it deserves to be told, we should have a story 
that would make the wildest romance of human imagination seem dull 
by comparison and would dispel for ever the illusion that the country 
is a dull place to live in. Agricultural science must be judged not only 
_ by its material achievements, but also by its success in revealing to the 
countryman something of the wonder and the mystery of the great open 
_ spaces in which he dwells. 
