Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-04

OVER UNCLE JERRY RUSK'S DOOR.
Secretary Rusk said the other day that
agriculture was at best nothing but Sc
ries of experiments-experim with soil,
with seed, with different crops, with meth
ods of planting, cultivating and treating.
The best farmer is the one who profits most
by the experiments which he has himself
made--or, better still, by the experiments
of others. Here is where the government
steps in with well defined function-that
of test, experiment, study, investigation,
all on scale of magnitude sufficient to de-
termine satisfactorily, and with care and
method and intelligence which reduce ex-
pertinent to science. In short, the gov
ernment has brought science to the aid of
agriculture and made it its handmaiden.
Science helps the farmer to make the most
out of his land, the most out of his work,
shows him how the best results may be OBJ
tained and where the greatest economy
lies. Assistant Secretary Willis was talk
ing about this recently, and ] cannot do
better than to quote his words:
"You cannot cheat nature" said he;
stransgress her laws and you shall surely
suffer. This applies to farming as well as
to sanitation or health. If you have a
plague stricken population you want
science to relieve it. A plague stricken
soil needs science too. Sanitation and vege-
tation are not accidents For both there
are arts that promote and arts that pre-
vent injury. Science is at the bottom of
each. sometimes think that the farmer
does not realize how much he owes to sci
ence. He may be too busy to remember.
What farmer, for instance, ever thought
of building monument to the man who
invented hay? Yet the inventor of hay,
whoever he was, deserves greater monu-
ment than Christopher Columbus, who
merely discovered America; greater than
Fulton, who merely applied steam to one
of its most obvious uses. In large sense
hay is modern discovery, based upon long
experiments in the importation, cultivation
and improvement of grasses till then I'M
known to the agriculturist. Three CEN
turies ago the average weight of bullocks
bought for the English navy was less than
400 pounds. For want of hay the sheep
were mostly killed in November, and such
as were left, with the oxen, starved through
the winter The discovery Of hay cannot
be said to have been an accident. The
practical, scientific experiments of the
Duke of Bedford and Others in the preser-
walton of grasses made the 1900 pound bull
lock possibility"
Now that our department of agriculture
has gotten we'll to work, with an adequate
and competent organization, it is doing
some surprising things in this field of ex-
pertinent and application of science in this
work of education. 1t is doing SO much,
and it's work is so sure to count in the re-
suits and prosperity of the future, that l
am sure the day is coming when the peo-
pie will be willing to spend five or ten
times as much money for this purpose as
Is now spent, as already it has come to
pass that the man who sneers at 'the
seed shop" and the "hayseed end of the
government" as was SO popular years ago,
simply advertises his ignorance and mar
rowness. In my opinion, the scientific
work of the department is really much
more valuable than its practical work,