AGRICULTURAL EDUGATIOH, 
397 
read, nor think we advance our children’s prospects by denying 
them the opportunity to learn all they can from books and school. 
Knowledge, whether gained in school or from experience, does not 
insure success, but, other things equal, the man who knows most 
will succeed best. It is the fashion with some to glorify science in 
its relation to agriculture, and ^o make absurd predictions of what 
it can do. It is the fashion with others to sneer at science and pro¬ 
nounce it utterly valueless to agriculture. The truth lies in the 
middle ground. It is not true that science has done nothing or 
can do nothing for agriculture. It is not at all probable, on the 
other hand, that science will ever relieve the work of the farmer 
from all that is disagreeable or from all uncertainty. There is no 
conflict between practice and science. Practice must come first, for 
science is based on facts and experience. It is but the sum of what 
is known on any subject. It is the knowledge of the many, col¬ 
lected and arranged so that one can make use of it. And no employ¬ 
ment of man is more closely connected with science or has need of 
a greater number than has that of the tiller of the soil. 
I can have no sympathy with the foolish and blind opposition to 
science sometimes seen. On the other hand, I have no sympathy 
with the contemptuous way in which some professedly scientific 
men ignore or ridicule all knowledge not gained in the school or 
the regulation way. All truth is important, but some truths are of 
more worth than others; some knowledge, of which we can now see 
no use, may be found of great value. But I conceive the highest 
use of knowledge or science to be to advance the best interests of 
man, and I have never risen to that state in which I was utterly in¬ 
different as to the applications of truth. He who discovers any 
truth, or demonstrates the existence of any law, may properly take 
pleasure in his achievement; but all the more if he be able to see 
that the huppiness of his fellows will be directly advanced by his 
discovery. I cannot appreciate the cast of mind which would lead 
a physician to take equal delight in a discovery that a certain newly 
discovered and rare drug was a virulent poison, as in the discovery 
of a certain remedy for yellow fever. Nor can I admire the student 
of agricultural science who would take equal delight in identifying 
an exceedingly rare and harmless insect, as in being able to give 
the world an easy and effective preventive of injury from the west¬ 
ern locust. 
