Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

AGRICULTURE AND DAIRYING 457
Delivered at Holstein-Freisian Association of America Convention,
National Dairy Show, Chicago, October 30, 1912.
Printed, Holstein-Freisian Register, December i, 191 2.
THE HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE DAIRY COW
THERE
is a popular impression that the science of
agriculture, the rapid progress of which is a matter
of comment the world over, is approaching the point
of exactness. This takes form in a number of generalizations
as to soil, seed, culture, breeding, and rearing which
convey an exaggerated impression, not only as to actual
achievements of science, but as to the relation it bears to
the mass of knowledge which exists upon these subjects.
So far as relates to the practical problems of the world,
scientific determination has usually followed practical
knowledge and served to organize it rather than to initiate
it. Almost everything we know about the best in agriculture
has been known to somebody or to some peoples
for a ver>^ great time, and the significance of present-day
activity, interest, and comprehension is not so much the
discoveries of science as it is the concentrated systematic
promulgation of scientific determination through broader
education.
The conclusion, therefore, is necessary that accumulated
experience, from whatever sources, is of the highest
value in the department of agriculture as in other departments
of life, and the problem before the modern farmer
is to harmonize that experience with the facts which science
from time to time clearly demonstrates.
Hence science serves to illuminate a field thoroughly
familiar but in many respects obscure.
The essence of science is its spirit rather than its
statement. He who is to be guided by science must at
the outset hold his knowledge lightly, remaining eager for