The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-04-28
Agricultural Experiments in Connecticut

The application Of science TO farming has
tor some twenty-five years been signaly
furthered in Europe by what are known as
experiment stations The first institution
of the kind in this country was organized
about two years ago by the State OF Con-
necticut in connection with the Wesleyan
University ut Middletown, and it has al
ready given proof of practical usefulness.
We find the services which it has been able
to render with very limited resources set
forth, together with much other agrouomic
information, in a lately published report.
The first efforts Of the Connecticut station
for agricultural experiments We're directed
toward IA better control Of the trade in COM
mercal fertilizers. Some two hundred
samples We're analysed during the year COW
cred by the report, and the amount Of labor
and expense cntailed by this service alone
would have exhausted the inconsderabe
sum allotted by the state had the work been
paid for at fair rates. The means adopted
to regulate the sale OF fertilizers are sub
stantially modelled on the plan long fol-
lowed in Germany. The essential features
are an agreement made with the station by
dealers to sell their wares 10y guaranteed
analysis, the verihcation being in all cases
left to its officials and secondly. provision
whereby purchasers may have samples of
the articles they buy analysed at small cost,
or for nothing The signcr Of this indenture,
which, We may here note has been entered
into 10y some forty firms IS not expected to
specify beforehand the composition Of the
wares he intends to sell, but he simply
binds himself to fulnl the requirement
Of the State law by accompanying every
package Of fertilizer delivered with state
ment of the analysis, expressed in plain but
technically correct terms, and 10 warrant
the consignment equal tothiS exhibit. Now
the statistics of the report prove that
simpler or more efficient method Of
placing the commerce in fertilizers under
control could not DO easily devised
Among the samples examined during the
twelyemonth were 80 specimens Of commodi-
ties sold outside of the stations supervision,
for the most part before its establishments
and II specimens Of articles sold under its
inspection The number of wares and their
range in quality seem sufficient TO afford
II fair index of the advantage resulting from
the oversight exercised by the institution.
Basng comparison upon the price Of the
really valuable ingredients, as determined
from composition and current rates, we find
| the average actual cost of the fertilizers
sold under the supervision of the station
was less than half that Of those delivered in
| the previous year.
The whole amount annually paid by Con-
nectcut aSriculturists for commercial ma
nurcs il variously computed at 100000 and
upward. But if we accept the minimum cs-
innate, and suppose the experiment station
to save only one-tonth, instead Of onc-half,
as above indicated, it is plain that the farm
ers Of that State would still realize an econ
omy in the first cost of fertilizers of $4,000
per annum. When we consider further, the
loss in the use Of land, and in tillAge whore
poor articles are applied, and the advantage
accvuing from absolute certainty rs to the
quality of manures, as we'll AS from the
more rational management that comes with
II better knowledge Of their chemical nature,
we must recognize much greater benefits
than are attested by the figures named We
must bear in mind that according to data
collected by Prof. JOHNSON not long before
the creation of this establishment at Mid
dlctown, the farmers Of Connecticut We're
paying at least 60 or 10 per cent more for
the valuable constituents Of their fertilizers
than We're agricultursts on tho other side
OF the Atlantic At the same time the cost
| OF the raw materials was no greater here