Miscellaneous, 



246 



[March, 1912. 



subject. It is too often the ease that 

 ground is covered by one investigator, 

 in ignorance that it has been traversed 

 already and to an adequate degree, by 

 another with consequent waste of time, 

 resources and energy. It should hardly 

 be necessary to point out that the 

 provision of a central agricultural 

 organization possessing a wide know- 

 ledge of agricultural matters and the 

 power to direct the energies of the 

 officers under its charge forms the most 

 useful means of preventing the loss that 

 arises in this way. 



One necessity for the experimenter is 

 the possession of the imaginative 

 faculty. He must be able to take a 

 broad view of the field in which his 

 activities are to be confined, so that he 

 may see plainly where his work is re- 

 quired, and be able to devise the best 

 methods for experimentation. Without 

 3uch a view, he will be likely to make 

 his research a matter, merely, of atten- 

 tion to inconsiderable details. 



He also requires patience. In agricul- 

 ture, particularly, years of careful 

 observation and many repetitions of 

 experiments are generally needed before 

 any dependable results can be obtained. 

 Attention may be drawn, for illustra- 

 tion, to manurial expeiiments, parti- 

 cularly with the sugar-cane and cacao, 

 that have been carried out during long 

 periods in the West Indies. 



Another requisite is a proper real- 

 ization of the necessity for the fair and 

 honest presentation of his results. As 

 far as is humanly possible, the direction 

 of the expei iments and the presentation 

 of what they appear to demonstrate in 

 fact should be free from bias arising 

 from preconceived theories. There 

 should be no ignoring of indications 

 contrary to existing ideas ; nor, on the 

 other hand, should too great a stress be 

 laid on isolated circumstances that 

 appear to give support to some favour- 

 ite theory. Theories of the latter kind 

 will often have to be discarded, and 

 there should be no hesitation in dismiss- 

 ing them from further consideration, 

 once they have been proved untenable. 



The advantage of the fair treatment 

 of results appears in another light. It 

 may lead to the forming of conclusions 

 that are of the greatest use, although 

 totally unexpected. Such conclusions 

 are of all the more value because they 

 have been formulated after ignorance 

 of the consistence and in the consequent 

 absence of bias in their favour. 



In presenting reports of work, much 

 care should be taken that such present- 

 ation is affected with the greatest 



clearness, and fairness to the evidence 

 that is available. Where this is the case 

 the clearness of the account is of the 

 largest use to other experimenters, and 

 may even enable them to elucidate use- 

 ful tacts in connexion with their own 

 work. The importance of this indirect 

 use of negative conclusions will be 

 evident. 



Where positive results of certain 

 application have been obtaiued, they 

 have two uses. The first is the obvious 

 matter of their utilization in existing 

 circumstances ; the second is their 

 employment to suggest other lines of 

 work. Such results actually have their 

 place iu a larger scheme; they comprise 

 a necessary step tor its completion. 

 The provision of all the results in the 

 scheme are in the hands of no single 

 investigator. One takes up the work 

 where another leaves it ; but the con- 

 clusions reached by those who succeed 

 the pioneers could not have been obtaiu- 

 ed without the existence of the prelimin- 

 ary conscientious investigations. 



Lastly, the use of the results of experi- 

 mentation is not confined to the line of 

 work in which they have their special 

 place ; it exists for other, probably quite 

 dissimilar, interests. It was not obvious 

 that the observation of Cavendish, that 

 the oxygen and nitrogen of the air unite 

 in the presence of an electric spark 

 would be a necessary preliminary of 

 obtaining an artificial manure, using the 

 nitrogen of the atmosphere ; the agricul- 

 turists of the time did not regard the 

 work with bacteria, of Pasteur, as the 

 commencement of studies which would 

 lead to the devising of proper systems 

 of tillage and agricultural conservation. 



The agricultural investigator has be- 

 fore him a large field of work. He can- 

 not enter alone. He must survey it with 

 an open mind, and decide which part of 

 it to occupy ; for this he will most prob- 

 ably require the guidance of those who 

 can more easily see how his work must 

 be correlated with that of others. Last- 

 ly, he will find it partly occupied with 

 the results of former activities. These 

 he will employ for the conduct of his 

 researches, in order that he may leave at 

 least something of use to those who will 

 take the place in which he once laboured 

 conscientiously. 



