Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-14
REPORT OF EXPERIMENTAL STA

1
The importance of speedily establishing
experimental farms, or experiment stations
! in the United States, scarcely need be dis
cussed at this day and in this place. In all
! time the means of progress in art and
( science have been observation, expert
ment, comparison and deduction--the as
cent from facts to rules, and to laws which
are the basis of rules. The resources of
simple observation and ordinary experience
have long been well-nigh exhausted in res
pect to many agricultural questions, and
the paths of future progress must be deter
mined and laid out by the aid of expert
ment. Nearly all the great benefactors of
the art of agriculture have been men who
knew how to plan, execute, and interpret
! experiments.
! Our implements of tillage and harvesting;
our high-bred animals; our choicest va
rieties Of grain, roots and fruits; our sys-
TENS of land drainage and rotation of crops,
our economy of fertilizers, in short the best
plans and practices of our agriculture are
the grand result of a long series of expert
ments, whose beginning is lost in the.
Yagueness of tradition.
Two evils that have thrown heavy shad-
ow on our agricultural advancement, have
! been-frst, the painful slOwness and uncer-
tainty of progress, and second, the enor-
nous waste of instructed energy. The
! farmer who, in this country, has upon him
! in most cases the treble labsr of earning his
! bread, of clearing up and permanently i'm
\ proving his estate, and of ascertaing for
| himself the best method for his husbandry,
must attempt either one of these enterpris-
es at the first cost of some success in the
others. He needs and now begins to de-
mand division of labor.
The advantages Of cooperation in all en-
| terprises of a commercial or political char
! acter are sufficiently understood. In agri-
culture we have long held the theory of as
ISOLATED effort, and through our agricultural
societies it has accomplished much. A
pressing want of the moment is the estab-
lishment of special stations for the simple
and exclusive purpose of carrying ON ex-
perimental investigations for the benefit Of
the farmer. The want has long been felt,
and in many of our States the agricultural
societies, the geological commissions, the
boards of agriculture, or the agricultural
colleges have put their hand practically to
the task of satisfying an oft-repeated and
most reasonable demand. These efforts
have, indeed, been in part spasnodic, in
part imperfect, and in all cases inadequate,
but they constitute beginning, and are the
signs of an energy which, when fully
awakened and rightly directed, will be-
come the pride and glory Of our agricul-
ture.
The first requisite in this work is a clear
vision of what it is practical TO accomplish.
There are questions, whose solution would
be of the highest service, which it now ap-
pears nearly hopeless to expect will yield to
anything but the most scientific and pro-
longed siege. There are others, which, in
all probability, may be resolved in short
time. To the first class belong the higher
problems of cattle feeding. The precise
condition Of the formation of nitrates in the
soil is a subject of the very highest practi-
cal importance in its bearing on the ecOno-
my of manureS and on the rotation of crops,
which, doubtless, might be quite fully elu-
cidated by a comparatively easy chemical
investigation.
In the second place, a full knowledge of
what has been done in other years and OH
er countries must be obtained before the
work of investigation can be intelligently
laid out.
In Great Britain, France, and especially
in Germany, has accumulated a mass of OBJ
servations, facts, and conclusions, which
| constitute capital for prOsecutingthis bu-
siness, which we can borrow by paying the
slight interest of translation and publica-
ton, and without which we shall waste
years of work in simply rediscovering what
is already known, and in repeating the trials
which have been found fruitless.
An acquaintance with the method of re-
search, which have proved successful in eX-
! perimental study, is a necessary part of the
! investigators outfit. 1t is folly to continue
| experimenting on cattle feeding without
/ chemical analysis of the food and the dung
| and urine, or to base the value of fodder "a
tions on gain or loss Of live weight since we
! have had recent demonstrations of the
worthlessness of such methods.
The supply of the means of supporting
! experiment stations is matter not to be
! overlooked. Experiments cost money, sta
tons must be procured, equipped, set in
! operation, and kept in operation perma-
| nently. They require continual outlay Of
! labor and money, and return nothing but
| information and ideas. They are not and
cannot be self-supporting. The State Legis-
! latures should be appealed to for aid in their
establishment and maintenance. The agri-
! cultural societies should make liberal con-
! tributions, and each land-holder should be
urged to add his subscription. The impor-
| lance of the work makes it worthy Of the
aid of the Department of Agriculture, and
of the direct support of Congress.
The cost of an experiment station need
not be large. The outfit will depend upon
the direction in which investigation is to be
prosecuted. A few thousand dollars, and
sometimes few hundreds, will make be-
ginning. The annual outlay may range from
one to many thousands. Most of the Ger
man stations cost two to five thousand dol
lars the year. The grand experiments of
Lawes and Gilbert, which have been in pro-
gress for a quarter of a century, are said to
have OccaSioned an annual expense of ten
to fifteen thousand dollars. There is useful
work that may be done for few hundreds.
Concert and harmony of action are es-
sential to the fullest success. In Germany
there is annually held a convention of the
persOns-mOre than 100 in number-who
direct and perform the work of the 40 ex-
pertinent stations of Germany and the adj
jacent countries, in which they discuss the
details Of their labor, and lay out plans for
cooperation and distribution of work.
The uses Of these stations are by no
means implied in the enunciatiOn of their
immediate objects. They will be found to
form the grand sources of agricultural pro
gress. A plat of ground where trials in
| cultivation or stable where feeding expert
ments are carried on, or laboratory in which
the questions of vegetable physiology are
undergoing experimental investigation in
diligently Is a centre not only of light, but
of heat also. These stations will excite the
interest Of the most Indifferent. The will
educate the mature farmer who cannot be
reached by colleges, who are not adequately
reached by any existing agency. The re-
suit is one most REASONABLE to anticipate, and
one which has been brilliantly realized
wherever the opportunity has been pre-
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