December 10, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



821 



the part of uuserupulous manufacturers 

 and dealers. 



The questions which we have been con- 

 sidering are very broad ones. They sig- 

 nify nothing less than a revolution, no less 

 real because gradual, in the methods of 

 agriculture as a whole and of the produc- 

 tion of animal foods in particular, and the 

 conditions which we must expect in the 

 future will call for a much higher degree 

 of skill in adapting means to ends than 

 has been necessary in the past. What, 

 then, should be the attitude of the institu- 

 tions for agricultural teaching and re- 

 search toward the problem of the future 

 food supply? 



Hitherto a large share of our experi- 

 ments in feeding have had for their chief 

 aim the improvement of present practises. 

 They have sought to demonstrate how vre 

 may mcst efficiently convert grain into meat 

 rather than how much of it can be saved 

 for man's direct use. While such experi- 

 ments have been of undoubted immediate 

 utility, yet we shall soon have to reverse 

 the point of view. Our experiment sta- 

 tions must take up in earnest the conserva- 

 tion rather than the exploitation of food 

 resources, and our agricultural colleges, 

 while still teaching the approved practises 

 of the present, must as their chief aim seek 

 to equip their students with a sound knowl- 

 edge of underlying facts and laws and 

 thus prepare them to meet the changing 

 conditions of the future. In passing, too, I 

 can not forbear calling attention to the 

 fact that such an attitude toward the sub- 

 ject of animal husbandry and such meth- 

 ods of teaching it will serve to impart to it 

 a higher pedagogic value than it generally 

 has at present and will tend to make it a 

 disciplinary as well as an informational 

 subject. 



Investigation of the questions here out- 

 lined must be of as broad and comprehen- 



sive a character as the problems to be 

 solved. It should proceed, as I view it, 

 along two main lines. 



The first of these is a far more exten- 

 sive and profound studj' of the scientific 

 principles of animal nutrition than has yet 

 been made. 



That he may utilize the materials of 

 which I have been speaking as completely 

 as possible, the stockman needs to know in 

 the first place what proportion of the 

 energy which these various materials con- 

 tain it is possible or practicable to recover. 

 This knowledge will enable him to effect a 

 wise selection in the compounding of ra- 

 tions, as well as have an influence upon the 

 whole S3'stem of farming. In the second 

 place, he needs to know the relative effi- 

 ciency of different species, breeds and 

 tj'pes of animals as converters of energ.y 

 and how their efficiency is influenced by 

 their natural or artificial environment. 



These, however, are questions of ani- 

 mal physiology. In effect they ask how 

 does the animal mechanLsm operate when 

 supplied with dift'erent raw materials or 

 placed under varying conditions. They 

 are problems for rigorous scientific re- 

 .search and too much stress can not be laid 

 upon the importance of such research. A 

 well-known investigator, in a private com- 

 munication from which I am permitted to 

 quote, saj's : 



If we are to find new things, to get new ideas 

 and to establish new lines of practical experi- 

 mentation, we must first increase our field of 

 opportunity by discovering new facts of general 

 application. The progress of every branch of ap- 

 plied science has been made in this way and agri- 

 culture as well as the mechanic arts has shared 

 in the benefits. The immense improvements of 

 recent years in agricultural practise are largely 

 founded on the purely scientific investigation of 

 the preceding generation. The progress of the 

 future must be founded on the scientific research 

 of the present. That researches directed to imme- 

 diate practical results frequently fail to yield all 



