June 29, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



645 



must distinguish between knowledge and 

 information. Knowledge is first-hand, ob- 

 tained from actual contact with the ma- 

 terial. Information is second-hand, 

 hearsay, coming from no actual experience. 

 Reading about nature, therefore, brings in- 

 formation; leontact with nature brings 

 knowledge. To serve a community by 

 bringing its children into contact with na- 

 ture is a great educational service. 



Perhaps the most significant contact with 

 nature is the handling of plants. We are 

 seeking now for an army of people with 

 some experience in handling plants; for 

 more people who will cultivate plants 

 wherever space permits. You have been 

 made to realize, in these days of testing 

 our resources, that the most important ma- 

 terial proiblem we are facing as a nation 

 is the prdblem of food-production and con- 

 servation. Food-production has lagged far 

 behind population, and this increasing gap 

 must be closed up. Our science of trans- 

 portation has far outstripped our science 

 of foodiproduction, so that we have come 

 to depend not only upon a diminishing 

 food supply, but also upon transporting 

 that supply across a continent. To learn 

 to grow plants and to grow them every- 

 where, especially near our great centers 

 of population, is a crying need. 



The development of home gardens, there- 

 fore, is not merely a service for social bet- 

 terment that all recognize, but it is becom- 

 ing more and more a public necessity. Any 

 institution that gives you and your chil- 

 dren this training is not merely an educa- 

 tional institution, but also a public bene- 

 factor. A Botanic Garden doing such work 

 is like a power house, radiating energy 

 throughout the community. Such training 

 is an equipment which not only enriches 

 life, but it is also an equipment for service. 

 In providing such an opportunity, a city 



can do nothing better for its young people 

 and its homes, and through them for itself. 



These two contributions, social and edu- 

 cational, seem very obvious, but the third 

 contribution needs fuller explanation. 



3. The third is the scientific contribu- 

 tion. This I regard as your great oppor- 

 tunity, and I wish to help you realize it. 

 We are a very practical people, and unless 

 we can see immediate returns from an in- 

 vestment, we decline to undertake it. Very 

 few people appreciate what it has taken to 

 make things practical. We speak of funda- 

 mental science and practical science ; some- 

 times we call these two phases pure science 

 and applied science. The general impres- 

 sion is that pure science holds no relation to 

 public welfare, and that applied science 

 serves our needs. You should know that aU 

 applied science depends upon pure science ; 

 that there would be nothing to apply imless 

 pure science had discovered it. If we had 

 only applied science, it would soon become 

 sterile. It is pure or fundamental science 

 that keeps applied science alive, that makes 

 progress possible. For example, if Fara- 

 day had not worked in pure science, Edi- 

 son would have had no basis for his wonder- 

 ful inventions. And so it is throughout the 

 whole range of the practical things we are 

 using to-day. To neglect pure science and 

 support only applied science would be like 

 wanting children and eliminating parents. 

 When I hear those who are regarded as 

 practical men lauding our practical 

 achievements, which certainly deserve 

 praise, but speaking lightly of work in 

 fundamental research, I think of them as 

 those who would praise the practical elec- 

 tric light and forget the impractical, be- 

 cause unseen, power house. Scientific re- 

 search is the power house that generates all 

 the energy we apply in developing what 

 may be called the machinery of our civiliza- 

 tion. 



