12 
laws of scientific study, whereby results in other branches: 
of science have been gained, and which may be expressed 
by the term ability to duplicate. The true work of a sta- 
tion must be first scientific, and second, the application of 
the results thus gained toward solving the practical prob- 
lems whose solution shall tend to the advancement of the 
farmer. There is scarcely any branch of science which 
deals with such complexity of factors as that which meets 
the farmer and the agricultural experimenter in every day 
work, and before that accuracy can be obtained which 
science requires and which adds confidence to the conclu- 
sions attained, we must note the extent of the action which 
each factor has contributed toward the result gained. That 
this is possible, I thoroughly believe; but I can see that be- 
fore such success is accomplished very much work is 
required, and our course must ever receive directions from 
multitudes of failures, for in experimental work failures 
oftentimes may be made equal value with successes. 
In this connection I quote from the address of Professor 
G. N. Darwin, before the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science : 
‘‘A mere catalogue of facts, however well arranged, has 
never led to any important scientific generalization. For 
in any subject the facts are so numerous and many-sided 
that they only lead us to a conclusion when they are mar- 
shalled by the light of some leading idea. A theory is, 
then, a necessity for the advancement of science, and we 
may regard it as the branch of a living tree, of which facts 
are the nourishment. In the struggle between competing 
branches to reach the light some perish, and others form 
vigorous limbs. And as ina tree the shape of the young ~ | 
shoot can give us but little idea of the ultimate form of the 
branch, so theories become largely transformed in the 
course of their existence, and afford in their turn the parent. 
stem for others. 
‘The success of a theory may be measured by the extent 
to which it is capable of assimilating facts, and by the 
smallness of the change which it must undergo in the pro- 
cess. Every theory which is based on a true perception of 
facts is to some extent fertile in affording a nucleus for the 
aggregation of new observations. And a theory, appar- 
ently abandoned, has often ultimately appeared to contain 
an element of truth, which receives acknowledgment by 
the ight of later views.” 
The plat experiments of this year, as in the past, serve 
but to accentuate our previous conclusions as to their 
worthlessness for their intended purpose. Before such 
trials can be of importance there is a necessity for much 
preliminary work designed to further attempts at separat- 
a i” ~~ 
—." - al 

