6 
conditions which the farmer is called upon to meet, and 
with which he deals, are exceedingly numerous, and are so 
frequently involved in apparent contradictions as to offer 
problems of high character in their unravelment. We find 
change of soil and change of climate in_ whatsoever ‘direc- 
tion we go from the Station grounds, and hence conclusions 
which are founded simply upon success upon one farm, 
without consideration of relations of cause and effect, can 
be expected to find no certain or decisive application else- 
where. Experimental research requires that our whole 
attention be given to the relation of causes and conditions, 
and the defining of these in such a manner as to give a 
certainty of conclusion for all cases where like conditions 
are to be met with or can be obtained. Our average crops 
are supposed to receive about five per cent. of their sub. 
stance from the soil, and about ninety-five per cent. from 
the atmosphere; it hence follows that meteorological 
relations must influence in all attempts to gain a maxima 
crop, and it must follow that fertility alone cannot be ex- 
pected to be a decisive feature, although a paramount fea- 
ture in proper relations with climatic and cultural condi- 
tions. Thus in my Massachusetts home, one hundred 
bushels of shelled corn per acre was not an unfrequent 
yield in good seasons and upon accidental acres; at the 
Station, without reference to the applied fertility and the 
highest cultural conditions, this amount of yield has not 
been approached. The suggestion that the amount and 
intensity of sunlight in the eastern locality is greater than 
in this lake region, is an hypothesis with at present seems 
to fully explain, but which, however, requires actual de- 
monstration before its acceptance. . 
METEOROLOGY. 
The value of meteorological observations can scarcely be 
overestimated, but to have a true value in experimental 
work they must be very complete. Our error from the 
beginning has been that we have not devoted enough atten- 
tion to this branch of agricultural science. Not that blame 
can be ascribed for this omission, but simply because cir- 
cumstances have not rendered it desirable to force into a 
prominent position a branch of our work whose importance, 
although appreciated by us, has not as yet the full apprecia- 
tion of the public. 
To take the air temperatures alone, to keep a record of 
the rainfall, is scarcely sufficient for agricultural experi- 
ment. Our study should include the soil temperatures, not 
only in one place, as we have already done, but should en-. 
tertain the question as to the influence of the character of 

