WHAT SCIENCE GIVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 17

WHAT SCIENCE GIVES.

A certain clas* of farmers "shut up like a clam" the minute you call their attention to the scientific side of farming. This is all wrong, and thousands of farmers are seeing it, but still thousands do not see it. What is science as applied to farming? Simply the best and wisest understanding of the condition of things. That's all. Men" who dig deep into the secrets of Nature ought to know something that is valuable for the fairmer to know. And they do. The other day we read that eoence was "organised common sense." That is a good, definition—organised common sense as against that which is unorganised. Take two brothers' ancl brim? them up on a farm. One studies the chemistry of the soil, of plant growth, of aniimal life. That means that he looks into the elements that compose all these things. He studies the action of bacteria and what they do in plant. and animnl life, his own life, and fax the soil. The other man refuse's to know these things. To that extent he is devoid of the most important knowledge and good sense that he might have. Both men work with their hands, for farm results cannot be had without labour. Rut how diffcrentlv each man works. The firt has organised his kinowlpdce—put it mto shape and orcW. Everything he touches with his hand has a lai-irer meanino\ He can learn how to work just as well as the otherr, with the big advantage of knowing whv he works and what it means to him. 'Print i<; what science gives to him. Scklnco is but the reason of things. Whv should any farmer be distrustful of sound knowledge and the reason of things?

Why should be despise tho opportunity of knowing the full meaning of work? It ia the meaning of labour that -we want to get at, and we oannot do that until we understand the meaning of things. That is what science gives.—Farm and Home.