Schemes for Agricultural Experiments. 507 



educational point of view, is closely analogous to the practical 

 illustrations which are a usual accompaniment of instruction in 

 chemistry or physics. Such demonstrations need lay no claim 

 to originality, but, like all illustrations designed to educate, they 

 should have a definite object, and should be performed with 

 neatness and accuracy. 



It has been objected that much of the recent field demonstra- 

 tional work has been characterised by monotonous repetition — in 

 other words, that the demonstrations of one centre and one year 

 have been repeated at other centres and in other seasons. Such 

 objections would appear to be founded on a misapprehension of 

 the objects of these demonstrations. They are designed not to 

 discover new principles but to exemplify old ones. Their 

 purpose is to supply practical illustrations or object-lessons of the 

 results of certain processes, and as each year brings new students, 

 or interests a new set of farmers in the work, so should the same 

 typical object-lessons be provided for their instruction. Another 

 reason for repeating the same demonstrations in different 

 districts and in consecutive seasons is that variations in soils 

 and seasons influence the results of processes and the action of 

 substances, like manures. It becomes, therefore, of importance 

 to discover an explanation for variations in results, and then a 

 demonstration approaches more closely to the character of a 

 true experiment. 



It has also been urged that there has been a lack of co-ordi- 

 nation or relationship in the demonstrational or experimental 

 work that has been conducted at the various centres. This 

 objection is, on the whole, well founded, and is recognised as 

 much by those who direct the work as by the class for whom the 

 work is undertaken. One outcome of the desire for co-ordi- 

 nation is a series of joint rotation experiments, started in 1897 

 and still in progress, some of the results of which have appeared 

 in the Board's Reports on the Distribution of Grants (see C. 9061, 

 C. 9431, Cd. 310, Cd. 814, Cd. 1242). Many of the field tests 

 carried out by agricultural societies are also of a thoroughly 

 co-operative character. 



In the past the general method of performing demonstrations 

 has, for the most part, been the same, but the details have often 

 been unnecessarily varied. Such isolated work has, in the case 



