320 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
THE BEARING- OF SOME OF THE WORK OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY UPON AGRICULTURAL IN¬ 
TERESTS. 
BY PBOF. T. C. CHAMBEBLIN, BELOIT COLLEGE. 
[Note. —This subject was presented to the convention in the extemporane¬ 
ous style, the use of maps making it desirable to do so. The following writ¬ 
ten out several weeks afterwards, will not be found a very faithful report of 
what was then said, as no attempt has been made to make it, in any sense, 
verbatim.] 
There are two kinds of scientific farming, so-called. The first 
is scientific in its data, the second is scientific in its methods. The 
farmer of the first class has at his command large stores of tech¬ 
nical, scientific knowledge. He knows the mineral and organic 
constituents of the soils. He understands their physical proper¬ 
ties. He has learned the chemical constituents of the atmosphere. 
He is familiar with the structure of plants and the functions of 
their various organs. In short he possesses an ample store of tech¬ 
nical knowledge of its scientific facts that are related to his pro¬ 
fession. But his success is not commensurate with his knowledge. 
He may be more successful than his neighbors. He may be less 
so. He will at times be brilliantly successful, at others, as bril¬ 
liantly unsuccessful. The fault is not in his scientific knowledge. 
That is well, is admirable, is indeed necessary to the highest pos¬ 
sible success. It is notin his industry, for that is unquestioned. 
It lies in his method. He makes an unscientific use of scientific 
facts. It is said of a certain prominent lawyer, that he makes 
very bad use of good law. So this farmer makes a very bad use 
of good science. 
The farmer of the second class is scientific in his methods. As 
nearly as it can be stated in a word, that method is experimenta¬ 
tion ; is precisely the method adopted by the scientist in the de¬ 
velopment of truth. The scientist carefully ascertains all the con¬ 
ditions under which his experiment is to be performed. He notes 
all the influences brought to bear upon it during its progress. He 
