18 [ ASSEMBLY 
newed experiment which seems hopeful for gain. That the churning 
quality of milk and its chemical quality bears no exact relation isa 
discovery of consequence, as well as the fact disclosed, that the char- 
acter of the food supplied to milch cows affects the churning quality 
of the milk more than it does the chemical quality. It seems now to be 
plainly evident, that for practical dairying, the churn is the only relia- 
ble implement which we have in determining the butter quality of the 
milk; analysis the only reliable method other than experimental of 
determining the food quality of milk. It is, however, not without 
interest that specific gravity and cream percentage offer guides, when 
correctly interpreted, as.to the quality of milk, and it is only when we 
assume from such observations more than the data which they offer 
warrants that we should expect error of judgment and mistake as to 
fact. It isa safe rule to observe, that when difference of opinion arises 
as to results gained, it is usually due to imperfect reasoning and 
difference in knowledge, or to the applying of the facts observed upon 
material of different origins, but assumed by opponents to be of like 
character. 
A difference of opinion between two persons, as the late Professor 
Agassiz once remarked to me in conversation, usually arises from 
difference of knowledge, which leads each to view the matter from a 
different standpoint. Equivalency of knowledge gives agreement. 
Indeed, it is with me a matter of universal observation that the facts 
offered by farmers are not usually to be questioned; although very 
often the interpretations of the facts observed are in error. ‘To right- 
fully connect cause and effect requires careful education and training 
of the faculties, and to interpret justly facts in their proper relations 
requires most considerate study. 
The greatest stimulus to research that we have is in the occurrence of 
variations. The beautiful example of experimentation in Darwin’s book 
on Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom originated 
from an observation that in two beds of toad-flax, the one sown with self- 
fertilized seed, the other with cross-fertilized seed, there was a difference 
of height between the plants of the two beds; this fact verified another 
year by a like observation upon the carnation pink, suggested the in- 
vestigation into its meaning, and: brought to our notice the general 
law that in plants cross-fertilization is beneficial, self-fertilization in- 
jurious; a law which has an important and practical bearing upon the 
production of agricultural seeds for sale and growth. In the records 
of our butter factories we have, as comes to me from good authority, a 
sometimes dajly variation in the value of milk for manufacture, a 
variation greater in amount than can be ascribed to errors in the 
churning. In our private dairies the same fact may be observed, as 
Professor Alvord has so well shown at the Houghton Farm Experi- 
mental Station at Mountainville, this State, as well as that variation 
occurs With individual cows, and with change of feed. These varia- 
tions have a meaning, and their study should make us acquainted with 
their cause. ‘The cause once apprehended and studied, it is nearly 
certain that the factors of variation will be found amenable to human 
effort, and that we may expect by influencing to diminish the differ- 
ences now observed, and thus acquire the power of increasing product 
by diminishing waste. Professor Alvord, than whom we have no 
