
46 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
This fact was generally remarked by those inspecting the 
growing crops, and while any general rule of procedure for 
other sections and other seasons could not be laid down from 
such limited data, none could doubt that for such a season as the 
past, for that field and that crop, there were marked differences in 
product which could be due only to the fertilizers applied. 
Or, to take another illustration, who can doubt that the great 
yield of potatoes secured in a recent contest, at the rate of 645 
bushels to the acre of one variety, and 1,076 bushels of another 
variety, under the conditions of soil and climate obtaining in the 
locality where the trial was made, was due wholly to the fertilizers 
applied and the method of cultivation employed ? 
It is doubtless true that the above results may be less, equal or 
greater, in the same or another place and another season, and 
it is probably true that certain details in the trial of the past 
season might have been modified or omitted entirely without 
affecting the result recorded above; but I think none will doubt 
that with all the limitations and modifications which science 
would demand before accepting any conclusion from the trial, it 
does possess a decided value practically and scientifically which 
will be found helpful in the production a large crops in the 
future. 
This matter is of such prime importance as a factor in deter- | 
mining the line of future experimentation, not only at our own 
but at other experiment stations of the country, that further 
consideration is warranted. 
In all experimental work, and more especially in that environed 
with so many and often such intangible and uncontrollable condi- 
tions as are questions affecting agriculture, whether in the field, 
the feeding pens or the laboratory, it is eminently true that 
hasty generalizations are the very bane of science, and have been 
the occasion of endless ridicule, brought grave discredit upon 
what has been termed “book farming,” and done much to hinder 
real advance. ie 
It is true that many experiments have been made which seemed 
to prove, if they proved anything, that the application of stable — 
manure was not only useless, but even harmful to the crop under 
trial; still does anyone believe that taking two farms regarded as 
equal in fertility, and treating one with the carefully husbanded — 
manure produced upon it for a series of years, while the other - 
