The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-07-24
Seventh Report of the New York
Experiment Station.

Here we see the hand of the expert
enced worker. The new director Of
the Station, Professor Collier, is well
known in Vermont. lie is man OF
the people, bred up on New York farm,
and educated in science as pupil, and
a favorite one, of Americas first and
greatest agricultural chemist, Professor
johnson of the Sheffield Scientific
School at New Haven, Conn. There
never was grosser blunder committed
than in allowing Collier to leave Yer
mont. He took hold heartily with the
intelligent, progressive farmers of the
state to improve our agriculture. He
had, and has, no high and mighty ideas
of his own greatness. lie can afford to
let that take care of itself, while he de-
votes himself to work. If the United
States ever makes its own sugar supply,
the name of Collier will be long pre-
served as that of the man who worked
at it heroically, against the meanest kind
of hindrances in the agricultural depart
ment at Washington. Golfers proph-
ecy that sugar could eventually be
made from sorghum at cost of one
cent pound has been widely sneered
at; yet much stranger things have hap
pened in America.
But the new director of the New
York Station is not making hobby of
sorghum. Unlike his rather too high
toned predecessor, he has sought not
to take his own way, or follow his own
preferences, but he asks what it is
that the farmers of the state want him
to do, and tries to do il. He is not
neglecting the subjects of fruit-growing
and horticulture; but he is taking hold
with vigor of the great and leading
points of general farming, and is striv-
ing to get at the bottom facts, such as
have pre-eminent bearing upon the
profitable production of the great
staples-grass, grain and roots-and
their advantageous sale, or conversion
into more concentrated forms, in but
ter, cheese and meat. His statements
in regard to the condition of the dairy
herds of his state, some of which we
have copied and which have been
widely commented upon and somewhat
criticised are attracting an immense
amount of notice. Whether the d.
rector is in all things quite correct is
a matter of minor importance, COM
pared with the fact that he is admitted
to be on the right track, and that the
point of vital importance to all eastern
farmers is the immediate and vigorous
wedding of their flocks and herds, and
strong determination to improve them,
until they are made much more profit
able than they ever have been.
What is needed is to show that this
can be done on every farm, where the
farmer is live man and means tC
make the best of himself, and of what
he has. We do not believe that farm
ing is, on the average, being done il
New York or New England at loss
for we do not see how that can be pos
sible. But we do know that tens o.
thousands of men on our farms are
dragging out their lives on half-and
half sort Of way, when with LITTLE
help from science, and little NOR,
manly courage and self-helpfulness
they might be improving their condi
ton on all sides, and in multitude o
ways open to them, yet not followed
because not clearly perceived. Out o
knowledge comes hope and courage
and never has wiser legislation BEEF
enacted than that which establishe'
our agricultural colleges and expert
ment stations. They must infus
strength and courage into our farmers
for they are being already recognize
as the sources of vast amount
practical knowledge in regard to a
sorts of work on the farm.
Much of this knowledge goes to vast
so far as individual farmers are col
cerned, because of their own imperfe'
education. The old notion of fire.
public education-that it should
merely elementary-has got to
dropped, and the principle laid dow
that the state will give to every child
it all the education he or she will tax
Some of the Western States have 6