The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-09


mate OF Central Michigan differs from that to the
East, or West, or North. Soils vary and an ex-
pertinent tried here would have to be tried also
in other localities before it would settle the value
Of any seeds or practice.
This, too, is not an age when diplomas snd
colleges impose on men. They listen as willingly
to George Geddes and "Walks and Talks" as to
the professors OF Yale and Harvard. 10 far as
one experiment OF this sort goes, an enterpris-
ing farmer can try it as well as we. The college
should help in these. because IL should Join In
whatever helps forward the progress Of agricul-
ture. But, perhaps, more rough experimenting
could be accomplished by small appropriation
to, say, 3 half-dozsn vigorous farmers clubs.
The libraries, apparatus and professorships OF
the college look to other purposes in addition TO
taking proper share in these rough expert
ments.
EXACT EXPERIMENTS.
The other class of experiments I shall call
''exact." They do not differ in kind from the
rough experiments, but only in the care with
which every element is observed and recorded.
The aim Of the experimenter is to ask OF ma
ture, so to speak, one question at time, and
only one; to put the question clearly and take
the answer exactly, adding no inference Of his
own. He may infer. he will do so no doubt, but
the inference is his gratuity-eaoh man may add
his own. In ali sciences this questioning ia
m after of extreme difficulty. stfightly to aues-
ton, says Lord Bacon, lis the half of SCIENCE"
In agriculture, exact experiments are of ex-
IRENE difficulty, and can almost never conform to
ideal tests.
President Hitchcock, of Amherst, says he had
been trying experiments in chemistry for twenty
years, and added 81 do not know of any 80 deli
cate as the farmer is trying" Lebeg says
'When the practical man does attempt to apply
sce ntitc teaching he is almost invariably suf-
ferer. He seems altogether to forget that man
does not become intuitively acquainted with sci
entfc teaching, which, like tue skillful use Of
any complex instrument, must be learned"
These difficult experiments seem to be easy,
and invite trial at incompetent hands. And so
Appleton's CyclopBdia says truthfully: 'In agri-
cultural reports and periodicals are thousands Of
reports on the value Of manures, with most con-
fllcing statements and chaos of results" The
Hon. Amasa Walker, The distinguished political
economist, who, as Secretary of Massachusetts,
collated the agricultural returns of the counties
of the Stateln 1851, said, "They are all chaos;
they do not prove anything"
It is upon accurate experiments that agrcul-
ture must depend, for change from an unde-
yeoped art into the standing OF q science.
| Exact experiments demand large outlay of
| money. Lawes Il Gilbert have spent SIS, 900 a
| year in field experiments that have almost uni
| formy borne good crops. The universal testi-
mony of those who undertake these invsstigs-
| tions is to their costliness, Such experiments
come slowly to their results. They would weary
out those who wait for results Bussey Institute,
the agricultural school OF Harvard University,
with its farm and seven professors, is prosecuting
admirable field experiments. Some seventy ex-
1
MERGE In England, George Vile in the Jardin des
| Plants in Paris, Meobi, Lawes q Gilbert, johnson
of Yale, aud all the experimenters of the world,
would no doubt feel we'll repaid ii the combined
efforts of all together could elicit one new fact
and firmly establish it each year. They will alto
gether fail Of such rapid progress. SIT takes ten
| years, at least says President Clark of Am
herst, 'to establish one agricultural fact
MASS. Agrl. 1928 p. 1872.
Accurate experimenting taken alone does moi
| n II n nf farm Ttn lfe
come too slowly to the student; he needs the ex
ample Of ordinary good farming before him
where the results appear from year to year.
| DR.. Thomas Anderson. the chemist of the High.
| land and Agricultural Society, who has been an
| authority in experimental chemistry for years
| lays it down as q rule, in accurate experimenting
| that the field to be used should be divided into
plots, treated exactly alike over it's whole extent,
and the growth and produce of each plot separ-
ately examined for two years before the experiment.
upon it Observation-Disclosures Transactions Of
Scotland, 1865, page 49, Then for the effect
of one manuring you must wait several years
and repetition then is requisite. l give, as an
| example, case taken from the New York Weehl,
Tribune for February 10. 1875, where a man
burned a quantity Of brush on sod ground. A
corn crop, an oat crop, and one clover crop,
showed no effects, but the third year the clover
stood double on the portion where he had burned
| the brush. The writer pertinently asks, :" Had
/ applied different kind Of fertilizer on my
clover, would not the last applied have been likely
| to receive ali the credit"
| COLLEGE MUST EXPERIMENT.
Although experiments are not the main object
of the college, yet they are . very important OBJ.
| ject. There are abundant reasons why we can
| not afford to do without them.
That the progress OF science is slow excuses nc
one from efforts to further it. Rough expert.
ments it should do to some extent, because il
| should help along and illustrate all the move
! ments that aid farming ana because at slight
o1d them.
should particularly show examples OF that rigid
experimenting which is costly from minuteness
| of care and valuable in proportion to its extreme
exactness. 1t ought to possess the means and
skill for teaching the determination OF question:
to the utmost attaiDable degree of precision, 80
| that its graduates and students may go out quail
flied to help agriculture to become science.
| Not that these same graduates IN their farm
| experiments would be as minute, generally, as
the example given them. But they would be
more exact, would understand the conditions
| present, and of those lacking more accurately
| and interpret the results more consistently with
the conditions OF the experiments. Field and
| feeding experiments enough to afford ample
means of study, and excite enthusiasm, as many
| indeed as the limited means Of the institution
admit OF, should be carried on. The rest Of the
farm and stock would afford illustration in study
| and serve, as | shall by and by show, another In
dspensable purpose.
In such experiments the college has already
| shown its skill. Great pains were taken to make
the experiments exact. There has been debate
as to comparative value OF small and large plats
most exact expermenters using small ones. W.
have combined the advantages OF both small and
large plats. Eight small plats fertilized witt
bone dust make quite field taken together, and
are In the aggregate no smaller because inter
and eight of Baugh's superphosphate, and still
more of plats pnmanured. The inteermingng q
and white squares Of chess-board. reduces the
error of inequalities OF soil, which mere sigh
and handling cannot detect.
Although for reasons that seem sufficient to
the honorable board of experienced farmers and
others that have the college in charge, these tx
periments have been suspended for few years
the college ia ready to resume them, and mus
do so for educational, if no other purposes.
Again. deadening influence would fall on
faculty and students il We had no experiments
None are qualified for the high Office of in
structors in science who not in spirit inves-
tigators also. Truth seekers are brotherhood
and although scattered throughout the world
here and there one, feel the subtitle influence
called esprit de corps, and help each other. Mr.
Atwater, an acute observer OF the experiment