Litchfield enquirer., 1875-04-01

thelr composition and wants and will thrive best on that plant food (manure) which is best adapted to them. The opin- ions of practical men are very varied on all these questions. Good experience end observation are somewLat of guide, but they are never quite sure ss to the. best manure and mode of manuriag for differ ent crops and soils. An experiment. sta tion with all the facilities and the right kind of men can readily carry on a series of trials that will furnish much accurate, trustworthy information on these points, the value of which to practical men can hardly be estimated in dollars.
 Agaln, the farmers of this state use hun dreds of thousands of dollars worth of commercial fertilizers. Some of these pay well, and others are worse than useless. Some of these fertilizers are good in one place and useless in others. Some are good at first, but as soon as they get their reputation established are made of poorer quality. Some are sold with pretensions as to their composition and value which are very far from true
 Of what immense utility it would be to have in the interest of the whole farming community central experiment station, where careful analyses of every fertilizer offered should be made; where the farm CTS themselves could go for information, and could send samples of fertilizers they thought of buying and to which every dealer would be compelled to submit his fertilizers for examination, and report as to their real character, composition and value, if he hoped to sell to our farmers. It IS safe to say that successful experi- ment station would save to the farmers of this state twenty times it's cost Tn the mat ter of fertilizers alone, by greatly increas- ing the certainty and profit from crops and by pointing out the really valuable fertilizers. A multitude of other questions. as the diseases of animals and plants, de structive insects, vitality and purity of seeds, milk and its manufacture, would all come within the scope of such an insti- tuition.
 If crime Is committed, and everybody runs hither and thither, no one will be apt to stumble upon the culprit. But if g trained and skillful detective be called, he will institute thorough search, gather together the threads of evidence, and weave them into net, in whose meshes the criminal will surely be caught. So it IS in detecting the wasteful errors of our farm practice, and in discovering the most rational and economical methods of maturing, and managing our agriculture. A skillful experimenter is like a trained detective: he discovers the insidious causes of disease and blight, and with these their cure; he learns where Is the waste in the manuring of the soil, and how to prevent it; he learns not by mere theorizing, but by the surest methods by asking of nature herself how we shall rightly meet her demands and receive in return her best rewards.
 We have in part answered the question at the beginning of our article Some of our intelligent farmers looking to their own advantage as we'll as that of their brethren throughout the state, are trying to have an agricultural experiment station established here. They might be willing to support it themselves, but feel that it ought to be done by the state for the ben- eft of the whole state. With one or two men of the right sort-and Connecticut is fortunate in having in her territory some of the very few men in the whole country fitted to conduct such an enterprise with one or two such men to direct the station, with few ass1stants to work un- der their direction, and with neeeful ap- pliances in the way of laboring apparatus, greenhouse, fields, cattle, &c.-very much good could be done.
 Such an institution would be an honor to the state, and of incalculable benefit to our agriculture, for 1t would not only be powerful means of increasing our knowl- edge, but would adapt itself to our daily wants and disseminate those facts which scientific and practical observers have es- tablished
 We ought to have an experiment. station, and the cost of maintaining it (eight or ten thousand dollors per annum) is. too trifiing compared with its benefits. to pre- vent it's immediate establishment.
 AGRICoLA.