Albion High School - Chevron Yearbook (Albion, NY)

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0IllIllI I THE CHEVRON l l 0 THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE A few years ago the term Scientific Agriculture was greatly ridiculed. In those days he who would apply scientific principles to farming was laughed to scorn. Hard, practical experience, not theory and experiment, was held to be the requirement of successful farming. But today a new science of agriculture is being evolved. Men realize that agriculture deals not only with inanimate objects, but with life and living things, and must therefore deal with many sciences. Among these may be named chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and economics. A knowledge of these subjects is essential to success in any agricultural pursuit or calling of the present day. A knowledge of the science of chemistry is necessary in order to under- stand and apply the principles of plant nutrition. The trained agriculturist must understand how the chemicals which he uses to fertilize his soil, may, through a series of chemical changes, become food for plants, and he must know how to hasten and guide these processes. He must understand how organic matter in the soil likewise undergoes chemical changes until it also becomes food for plants, and he must know and provide the conditions under which this takes place. He must know something of the chemistry of the spray mixtures which he uses to control insects and plant diseases. He must be familiar with certain tests, such as the soil acidity test, and the Babcock test for butter fat, which are purely and simply chemical reactions. The scientific farmer must apply physical principles at every turn. He must use internal combustion engines, which are highly complicated devices by which the properties of levers, of mass, of expanding gases, and of elec- tricity are made to serve him. He must harness electricity with its many properties, and make it work for him. He must understand pulley ratios, power application, friction, and a thousand other things wholly physical in nature. In the field of biology, he must be guided by the laws of heredity in the breeding of his stockg he must utilize the laws of plant growth in raising his crops and he must abide by the laws of animal nutrition in feeding his live- stock, and he must understand life history and habits in combating crop and livestock enemies. It need not be emphasized that the scientific farmer has need of mathe- matical training. Money transactions, estimations of distance, area, and con- tents, farm engineering problems, farm cost accounting, and numerous other jobs of like nature require a practical working knowledge of mathematics. Last, but perhaps, in this modern age, most important of all, the scientific farmer must understand and be guided by the laws of economics. In the midst of problems of over-production, distribution, tariff, farm boards, high pressure advertising, competition from foreign fields, cooperatives, production cycles, combinations and mergers, and intricate marketing problems for practically every farm product, his hope lies in a knowledge of the economic laws by which these things operate. Only with such knowledge, may he ad- just his business to changing conditions and survive. Two new beings are being evolved in this scientific age. The first is the trained agricultural worker who concerns himself with the discovery of scien- tific principles and the application of them to practical farming. The second is the scientifically trained farmer, who sets himself to make use of these Page Twenty-four

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0ll!3ill I THE CHEVRON ll! 0 btience WHY STUDY SCIENCE? As Mr. D'Amico said when our chemistry class was making alcohol, this is being done in the interest of science. Science, if I may steal Webster's thunder, is the comprehension or understanding of truths or facts by the mind. Although Webster may have meant well by this definition, it cer- tainly does not suit my purpose, so I'll have to advance my own that science is the comprehension or understanding of the phenomena of the universe. The fact that this world upon which we live is controlled by the forces of the different sciences should influence everyone to endeavor to learn something about it. Many people, unable to understand the theories and laws of science, are not fully appreciative of the foundation which these beliefs have established. A theory is a scientific guess explaining some phenomenon of lifeg whereas, a law is a conclusion drawn from experiments which prove its validity. Guess is a rather weak word to use in defining a theory since it suggests too much improbability. Nevertheless a theory, as the definition says, is a guess, but this guess must be based on scientific facts which lead to the deduction of which I speak: or to explain myself' more fully, a theory is an outlet for a law which has no proof. In many cases, theories, which were originally advanced as plausible guesses, have been found to be true. This not so peculiar result has often been brought about since, after the theory was advanced, scientists carried on research with this theory in mind and, following the viewpoint suggested by the theory, were able to make discoveries which supplied sufficient proof to make the theory a law. In other cases, such as that of Avagadro's prin- ciple, which states that equal volumes of all gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure inclose equal numbers of molecules, proof has been supplied by apparatus which is, in this case, able to count the number of molecules in a given volume of a gas. Theories and laws constitute the theoretical sciences, whereas, their appli- cation constitute the practical sciences. Without the theoretical sciences we could have no practical sciences and without the practical sciences we would profit little from the theoretical sciences. We, therefore, see that we can neglect neither since each is equally important. This must have been the opinion of Pasteur, perhaps the greatest of all the French chemists when he said, Science is the soul of the prosperity of nations and the living source of all progress. What really leads us forward are a few scientific discoveries and their applications. From our birth to our return to dust, the laws of the sciences are the con- trolling laws of life, health, disease and death. It is unfortunate that many people make no endeavor to learn something of this which concerns them so vitally. It is not only essential that we familiarize ourselves with these facts but we should make use of them and encourage others to do likewise. There- fore, we dedicate this Chevron to excite and promote interest in the appli- cation of science. -Walter Monacelli, '30. Page Twenty-three

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Ol !Illl l THE CHEVRON I l O scientific principles in the task of feeding and clothing the peoples of the world. With the appearance of these two beings, agriculture is rapidly be- coming a science worthy of taking its place in the world. -Leon Packer. A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF DEVELOPMENT There would be no tadpoles if there were no frogs, There would be no frogs if there were no tadpoles. On April the seventh, one of the boys brought to the biology room three masses of frogs' eggs which he had found in a swamp that is beyond the Allen road. They have furnished much interest in the Biology room. If these masses were inspected carefully, one would notice that they looked like a mass of tapioca filled with black dots the size of a pin-head. Each black dot was a fertilized egg and we could see that the upper surface was velvety black and the bottom was creamy white. The egg masses were placed in a glass aquarium which we filled with water and on account of the warmth of the room, they hatched much earlier than they would have hatched in the woods. By the eleventh of April the tiny tad- poles were clinging to the jelly-like mass and feeding on the egg yolks within their own bodies. On the fourteenth they were all swimming and clinging to the green plants which were placed in the acquarium. The tadpoles were about one-fourth of an inch long, and they had external gills. Soon they began to eat the ground-worm fish food which we crushed very fine to enable it to be-taken into their tiny mouths. In three days they lost their external gills and gained internal gills. During the Easter vacation Harold Bruilly fed the tadpoles for us. When we came back they were about one-half an inch long and they have steadily grown till now, May 19th, they are about one inch long. They have plump, oval-shaped bodies and tails about twice as long as their bodies. The white, curled-up intestines show through the nearly transparent skin of the abdomen like a coiled thread. How cute they look as they swim to the surface, flop over on their backs and suck the food into their mouths! The tadpoles lash the water with their tails which propel them swiftly through the water. They have comparatively large eyes and we can see their nostrils. When we look closely at their sides, we can see the red internal gills. These tadpoles now perform all of the vital functions except reproduction. To illus- trate: The tadpoles swim about the aquarium fmotionlg they know food, and if the aquariuln is jarred, they swim away from the glass fsensationlg when food is put in the aquarium, they arrive quickly and dispose of it ffood-takingl. We know that the other functions digestion, absorption, circulation, assimila- tion, respiration, and excretion are taking place within their bodies. Like the balance in the universe, our aquarium is balanced. The green plants furnish food and oxygen for the tadpoles and the tadpoles excrete carbon dioxide and nitrogenous waste which the plants use. Thus both are mutually benefitted and life is made possible. Several grade-teachers and the pupils have taken tadpoles from the aquarium and are enjoying watching their development. Three cans full of tad- poles have been taken back to the woods because they grew so large that there was not enough room in the aquarium. In the open only two or three frogs out of every egg mass grow to maturity. So far, not one of the tadpoles in our aquarium has died. There, it is the Page Twenty-five