In almost every problem in agriculture the complex phenomena of life are directly concerned, under various forms and activities, which can not be expressed or formulated in chemical terms, from the self-evident truth that the part can not contain the whole. The significance and interdependent relations of the biological factors in agriculture are unavoidably obscured by the exclusive consideration of specific details which, with the advance of knowledge, may prove to be but incidents in the manifestations of general laws.
The solution of these Protean problems can only be secured by abstract researches to determine the relations of the several factors to each other, and to the general laws of which they are the expression. The principles of science that are admitted to be of general application are the only safe guides in developing an improved and rational system of agriculture, while the purely empirical lines of research that aim to discover specific rules of practice, and thus gain immediate practical results, retard the march of progress by the delusive importance assigned to nonessential details.
The truth of these statements may be illustrated by the remarkable progress of the physical sciences in the past quarter of a century, and the rapid development of the industrial arts through the recognition and applications of the principle of the conservation of energy, which Faraday looked upon as "the highest law in physical science which our faculties permit us to perceive," and Huxley refers to, in connection with evolution, as "the greatest of all of the generalizations of science."
The principle of the conservation of energy, which is now generally admitted to be a prime factor in Nature's operations, has not received adequate attention in agricultural science. It is true that in general terms it has been incidentally referred to as a factor in biology, more particularly with reference to mechanical work, but the dominance of purely chemical considerations has prevented its real significance in all organic processes from being fully recognized.
More than twenty-five years ago, Dr. William B. Carpenter pointed out to physiologists the "distinction between the dynamical and the material conditions; the former supplying the power which does the work, while the latter affords the instrumental means through which that power operates."
The material conditions have, however, continued to receive a predominant, and almost exclusive, share of attention, and the manifestations of energy in the processes of vegetable and animal nutrition have practically been ignored.
In the applications of science to agriculture, and especially in planning and conducting experiments, the transformations of
