, HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 449 
investigation of soils and fertilization would be utterly futile; it 
would be useless. 
Secretary Wuison. There is a certain per cent of truth in what 
Whitney has said; that I personally know of. 
Mr. Grarr. You permitted the use of the bulletin on the ground 
that it would stimulate investigation of the question? : 
Secretary Witson. Precisely. I give hima free field. I am glad 
that the chemists have awakened to the necessity of agriculture along 
these lines; if we have put new life into them it will be valuable. We 
have not hardly an agricultural chemist in the world; it is a new 
science. When a man who makes his living by working the field 
comes to me with his troubles | yoke up a scientist with him. I want 
to find out what can be done to help that man, and we come right 
along against his propositions that have never been solved because 
scientists in the past have never proven anything. They have never 
applied themselves practically to help anybody; that is where the 
trouble has been. 
Now, what can I do in this case? I havea faint knowledge of the 
direction in which every one of the three or four scientists of the Depart- 
ment are working—the objects for which they work; I have not a 
practical familiarity with it. The details of every scientist’s work is 
something that is only comprehended. by men in their own line. Whit- 
ney has challenged the chemists. If it comes toa head, I shall ask 
Mr. Whitney to appoint a man, and I shall ask the chairman of the 
chemistry organization to appoint a man, and we will have a third 
man appointed by those two, and we will let them go to work and find 
out whether Whitney is right or wrong in that particular line. 
Mr. Grarr. There was an article by a man by the name of Hilder, 
in California, who attacks the methods of the investigation. 
Secretary Wrison. He is a fine, old-fashioned chemist. 
Mr. Grarr. I do not know anything about Hilder’s scholarship. 
Secretary Witson. We are going to give our men an opportunity 
to see whether they areright or wrong. Whitney is going in so many 
ways that are valuable that we can afford to have him go wrong. Most 
of them never did anything for agriculture worth speaking about. 
Mr. Scott. Do you not think, as a general proposition, that bulletins 
ought to be published only—or, at least, chiefly—along lines in which 
definite conclusions which are not disputed can be laiddown? Does it 
not leave the farmer in a rather confused frame of mind to have a 
bulletin come out from the Department of Agriculture asserting one 
thing and find immediately that men working in similar scientific fields 
dispute it? : . 
Secretary Witson. Well, we published some seven hundred publi- 
cations last year and there is only one of them disputed; and the 
farmer is not going to bother himself about that one, because that is 
a technical bulletin on chemistry. It is worth publishing to have them 
discuss it. : ; . 
Mr. Apams. If I recollect right, the statement which excited criti- 
cism, and about which I have received one letter from the College of 
Minnesota, was to the effect that all soils contain enough plant food 
for unlimited crops. ; 
Mr. Grarr. Which would lead to the conclusion that there was no 
such thing as wearing out land. 
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