Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-10-13
More About Scientific Investigation.

l sometimes wonder what some of my good
conservative farmer friends, who are salts
fed with the old ways of tilling, breeding
and feeding that our great-grandfathers tried
aud proved and take no stock in new.fan.
gled notions and scientific theories, would
think il they were to see how the expert
ments are made in the German and other
European stations, the labor, patience aud
money they cost, and the way their results
are applied. The accounts Of the expert
mental investigations on the subject of AMI
NAL nutrition that have been published dur
ing the last fifteen years in the German
language alone, would make what most peo-
pie would call good sized library. The
experiments thus described are numbered by
hundreds and even thousands, each one Of
which has cost the labor of days, weeks and
even months. They have called into requisi.
tion the services of the ablest scientific men
and the most successful farmers. They have
involved an incalcuable amount of thought,
care aud toll, in the laboratory, the stable
and the study, The labor, much of it
menlal Sort has been performed willingly,
even enthusiastically by those 10 whom it
has brought not wealth, but only meagrc
support. And it has at lougth come to be
appreciated by the public. The first agri-
cultural experimental station was started in
Germany some twenty-five years ago
There are now over seventy on the Continent
Of Europe, and are increasing more and
more rapidly year by year, and many Of
them we're founded by the farmers them
selves, who contribute largely to their sup
port.
Many will say: "Well, what real prac-
tical good do plain farmers get from all this
scientific experimenting and book-writing ?"
These investigations have done n vast deal
to settle the questions about stock-feeding
that occupy so much space in the papers,
and are perplexlng as they are important to
millions of farmers on both sides Of the At
lantc. Combined with the results of daily
farm experience, they have shown for what
purposes different kinds Of fodder materials
are best fitted, aud how much each is worth !;
they have taught the farmers how to make
valuable fodder out of poor hay and straw
how to employ lucerne, seradela, clover aud
other forage crops to the best advantage !;
how to utilize waste products like flax-seed
and cotton.seed and the oil cake made from
them like the refuse from the manufacture
of sugar from beets and Of alyholic spirits
and starch made from potatoes and grains !;
they have shown in what proportions these
and scores of other fodder materials should
be mixed and used, so as to get the greatest
benefit from the least cost. And much as
has been accomplished in the matter Of feed
ing, still more has been learned about the
nature and use Of manures, and the cultiva.
tion of crops. ''' The fact is that the
time is coming indeed it has come in our
older states, when We must better under
stand how to manage our soils, our fertili.
GERS, our crops our feeding material and our
stock or fail in our farming, And this def
mite knowledge of the principles that under,
lie the right practice of farming is not use
ful simply for the better crops aud larger
profit it will bring, Like other knowledge
it has a worth Of its own, which can not be
reckoned in dollars and cents.-Prof Atioa
: ter in American Agricultnrist.