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Annals of Horticulture. 



has attained his highest privilege, but the greater part of in- 

 vestigation must necessarily fall short of this. Except in 

 matters of general science, the investigations of European 

 students possess little or at most indirect value to the Ameri- 

 can farmer. The work is accomplished under conditions and 

 upon plants which are unfamiliar; and it is also a fact, 

 however much it may be deplored, that the remoteness of the 

 experimenter usually curtails interest in his work. A Ger- 

 man experiment, for instance, is worth much more to the 

 American farmer when repeated in this country than when 

 published first hand. Moreover, there is no means by which 

 the detailed work of foreign investigators can be placed be- 

 fore the mass of our farmers. The researches are too heavy 

 for the agricultural press, and it is considered impolitic for the 

 experiment stations to issue them as bulletins. All these facts 

 appear to be overlooked by various scientific journals which 

 persist in comparing all work with European standards and in 

 inveighing against all experiment which is not new. A certain 

 experimenter recently thought it legitimate to make various 

 researches because " there have been no general inquiries in 

 this country into the exact effects of these conditions, or their 

 importance to the cultivator;" whereupon an editor of a 

 scientific journal remarked, "Well, what of it? There have 

 been in other countries." 



In short, the work of European investigators is of chief use, 

 in America, to the experimenter rather than to the farmer, 

 and it is the privilege of the experimenter to make whatever 

 use of it that seems fit. It may suggest work for himself, or 

 he may supplement it. Here arises the question as to how 

 far the experimenter shall quote volumes and authorities, in 

 his bulletins, for similar work done elsewhere. It is doubtful 

 policy to load a popular bulletin with references unintelligible 

 to the cultivator ; it seems better to make a simple statement 

 of the foreign results, if it is thought best to discuss them at 

 all. Many bulletin-makers write as if their audiences were co- 

 workers rather than farmers. Yet the whole matter of colla- 

 tion with foreign experiments is an open question, and it may 

 solve itself if attention is once called to it. There are some 

 bulletins which are of necessity technical and interest a small 

 audience ; in these the technicalities of composition are neces- 

 sary, for their matter is mostly new in science. But the mass 



