Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-14

WEDNESDAY EVENING. SEPT. IA. 1881.
About Farm Experiments.
Waldo r. Bowman in Country Gentleman.
/ have been to some extent for twenty
five years an experimental farmer. BY
this do not mean that have had charge
Of an experimental farm. but / have rarely
let q year pass in which have not con-
Quoted some experiments, and recorded
them in my farm diary. Farm expert
ments are not only valuable, because by
them We may hope to settle some fact, but
still more 80 to the farmer who attempts
them, in making him more painstaking
and careful, and developing in him habits
asked to give advice to a young farmer,
which, il followed, would not only make
him a better farmer, but a broader and
happier man, I should say, experiment
each year, and keep a record of your ex-
periments.
All agricultural experiments are val
liable to the man who makes them for
their influence on himself, but whether
they are valuable in settling any point or
not, depends on several things First, the
experiments must be perfectly accurate.
Farmers arc too much given to guess
work, but this will not do in experimental
farming. Everything mnst be accurately
weighed and measured, and an account of
tho cost kept. Second, experiments to be
valuable must DO often repeated. Ono cx-
pertinent proves nothing. The conditions
of soil and season vary SO greatly, that
what is best one year is not best another,
and a series of experiments should extend
through several years so as to hit wet and
dry, cold and hot, bad and good years. 1t
would add largely to the value of these
experiments if there could be several far
mers located in different parts state who
should undertake, under the direction of
a single person, tho same experiments, and
repeat them for series of years, or until
the question vas fully settled which the
experiment sought to confirm.
Suppose, for instance, farmer writes to
his agricultural paper that he has tried
two stalks of corn in hill in five rows
and three in a hill in five rows adjoining
on ono side, and four stalks in hill in
five rows on the other side, and that the
two stalks gave the largest yield, the
statement carries little weight with it. If
he says he has donc this for ten successive
years and the result has been the same, it
carries a good deal of weight. If, how
ever, ten men in as many different locali
ties in the state, embracing all the varie-
ties of soil and climate, should repeat the
same experiment for ten years, it would
enable us to decide with almost absolute
certainty rs to whether two, three or four
stalks would give the most grain. Agri
cultural experiments, if carried out as they
should be, cost more than the ordinary
farmer can afford. Besides, there is little
to stimulate him to perscverc in them, SO
long as he is alone and gets no pay for his
labor.
hope to live to see tho day when in all
our great states there shall be one central
experimental station, under the charge of
a state secretary, or farm superintendent
at tho agricultural college Of the state,
and then . corresponding secretary i'll
each county of the state, and tho farm of
this corresponding secretary made sub
Orninate experimental station, to carry
out at least one experiment each year
under the direction of the state secretary.
l should insist that these corresponding
secretaries be paid for their work literally,
if it was properly done, and if only a SIN
gle experiment was attempted at each
subordinate station the expense would be
small A farmer could afford to carry out
a single experiment for twenty five to fifty
dollars, and this amount might be taken
off the speed-ring premiums-in most
counties-and would hardly be noticed.
In time, rs the subordinate stations
gained experience, there could more be at
tempted. These corresponding secreta-
ries should make monthly or semi-monthly
crop reports through the growing season,
and should make trip through their
counties when ordered to do so by the Sec
retary, and should be paid for this service
fair per diem. If the secretary Of any
state board of agriculture had trusty
man in each county who was pledged to
obey his orders, and could send out these
men just before wheat harvest or
corn busking, to ride through these
counties inspecting the crops and
distributing blanks, we shonld get from
their reports better ideas of the yield and
condition of crops than has ever yet been
published. The experiments carried out
would cover enough territory, and be re-
Heated often enough to be Of great value.
1t may be that the plan suggest is not
tho best and cheapest for agricultural ex-
periments. but it seems to me to be such.
1t certainly is a great want of American
agricpl ture that there should be some or
ganized intelligent cooperative expert.
mental farming, and if work is ever to be
done. the press must discuss and agitate
the matter until it is brought about.