Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-12-17

Experiment Stations and Their Work
T fl What way can our Experiment Stations
best aid the work Of the practical farmer and
advance general agrieultures
With an experiment station in each state
Of the Union supported By the National Gov
eminent, and in some states an additional
station maintained BY state or private eI-
psE.e, the above becomes one Of the most
interesting questions in connection Sith their
work. and wiih the future development,
method. asd profits of the practical business
Of farming
Experiment stations had their origin in
country, and under conditions, widely differ
ent from anything yet found IL American
coils or American farm life.
The first agricultural experiment station
maintained by Government aid was founded
IN saxony, in the German empire, in 1851.
It vas demanded BY the crossing rational
alarm consequent upon an impoverished soil
a reduced yield Of agricultural crop, and an
in ;reasing population.
Could not the Government do something,
through the aid Of science to help the peas
ant farmer To so treat has soil, so manage
his crops and 80 conduct his bus ness that
exhausted fertility conld be restored the
producing capacity of the soil maintained.
good crop. grown, and the increasing num-
beers Of an already dense population kept
from want. This "a. the problem 10 which
scientific men turned their attention, sncoar-
igsd by Government, sith the result that i,
already known to the agricultural World.
More thaa hundred agricultural experiment
stations now exist in Germany, while they
have extended to almost every nation On the
continent of Europe, Australia aud the
United States.
But the conditions which called
them into being were peculiar To old world
agriculture. among an ignorant peasantry,
where the farmers, if farmer, they can be
called, did not possess the general intelli-
gence common in this country even in its
primitive days, and where conditions of soil,
climate, crops and processes were totally
different from our own.
Yet to-day, the American Congress has
Appropriated So 900 annually to each STATE
for the maintenance OF an agricultural ex-
pertinent station. What shall their work be
how is it to practically al the American the
Maine farmeri
Our farmers are intelligent. For cen
fury they have had the bene fit and encourage
ment of the most enlightened mind, given to
questions of practical agriculture, great aid
rendered by agricultural societies, and the
educating, elevating influence of the agri
cultural press-the most potent power for
their educati On, advancement and elevation
that has ever been employed for the good of
husbsndry. Our soils are not exhausted our
farmers are not ignorant peasants, our crops
feed other nations than our own.
Nor is the American farmer without helps
of all kinds societies, boards of agriculture,
competition fairs, farmers institutes. agri-
cultural colleges, books, the press. What
mighty agencies for his elevation, for his ed
ucation, for improving his condition Added
to these is the experiment station copied and
adapted from the old world
Their work has hardly been CONNIE eed'
and 1t is too early to Judge of results In
deed Of results there are so far but very few,
and these in most cases need constant
duplicating and testing to affirm their nature.
The average time required to thoroughly
test an agricultural fact, ora fact obtained
from scientific questioning, bearing upon
practical farming has been stated to be thirty
years. How the work of scientific agricul-
cure magniies
Each station is to have force of skilled, /.
trained, scientific workers Their duties
will be in the laboratory and the field. They |.
are to deal with many element'-the soil
and It's varying conditions the seasons and
their peculiarities; all kinds of crops
the nature Of fertizIng agents the structure
of the farm animals and their functions the
composition of animal and human foods.
These skilled workers stand as interpreters
between the questions asked OF Nature by
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