The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1859-04-14
TOLEDO, TAMA COUNTY, IOWA, APRIL IA, 1859.

increased and confirmed conviction that
your experimental farm piH ere long be-
come self sustaiaing II not remanerative
in its results, notwithstanding the ad-
verse aDd unfavorabIe opinions Of ma
n.y."
A small portion Of farm may be de-
voted to making experiments, and the
profits on the other portion may be suf-
icisnt to defray the expenses Of these
experiments. But in this case the prof.
its must be larger than they usual, arc,
and the experiments must be such as
any farmer can ake-cxperiments in
volving SO little care, labor aud expense,
as to be Of little value.
In .nstitutins experiments, it is as
sumed that we are ignorant Of the best
system Of tillage, Of rotation, Of manur-
ing, and Of general farm management;
and the object is to discover it, To OBJ.
tain tLic information we must expert
ment-we must try various systems,
modes Of tillage, manures, etc. Some
Of these, as We have before said, may be
better than those now adopted-many
Of them will be worse. These trials,
too, must be made with great care and
accuracy they must be Systematically
carried on for years, or we shall draw
from them hasty and erroneous concIu-
sions. Such experiments cause serious
interruptions to the general business Of
the farm, besides involving much extra
expense and labor. A good experiment.
al farm, therefore, cannot be profitable
one. 1t is vain to expect it. The
agricultural papers of England and
this country have commented on the
fact that the experimental farm near
Dublin, Ireland, has entailed serious
loss on its managers. But such a result
should excite no surprise. The justly
celebrated experiments at Rothamsted,
which have done so much to increase
our knowledge Of agriculture, have cost
Mr.. Lawes, for many years, from SlO,-
600 to $4,000 per annum. Boussing-
ault's experiments in France could only
have been carried out by millionaire.
Even the small and worthless expert.
ment which Liebig made on his ten acre
farm near Gcissen cost S3, 200; and we
may be allowed to say that our own ex-
periments on corn, notwithstanding the
New York State Agricultural Society
were so kind as to award US their irst
premium Of SIS, cntailcd considerable
loss; and such was also the case with
the experiments on potatoes, Chinese
sugar cane &c. In this we were not
disappointed. We never expect to see
. self supporting experimental farm !;
and the sooner such an idea is abandon
ed, the better for the cause Of cieatific
agriculture.
The experiments which have been
made on the Model aud Experimental
Farm in Virginia, were such as we might
expec, from an experimental farm which
was designed to be "sclf-sustalniny. y
Not one Of them was designed to throw
light on the principles Of agriculture
They have mostly been trials Of this,
that, or the other guano, or super -phos-
pilates Of different manufacturers, the
value Of which q good analysis would
determine as we'll as the most careful ex-
pertinent.
We have said that any intelligent
farmer can make-and hundreds do
make-just as good experiments as the
managers of any 'self-sustaiaing" ex
perinental farm. He must be Q sad
bungler who makes worse work than is
described in the following record from
the report Of the superintendent Of this
model farm:
"On the 18th, two acres Of pea fallow
were sown, at the rate of 4 bushels Of
early purple straw wheat Fer acre aud
on the 18th and 18th, eight acres Of
corn lands were SOW ut the same rate
per acre, and with the same variety Of
wheat One hundred and seventy Eve
pouads Peruvian guano per acre we're ap.
piled to all. On the pea fallow the GU
ano was we'll narrowed in, and on the