The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-22

also emphasizes the necessity for expert
mental farms for the purpose of conducting
series of experiments " hich many farm
ers have been tempted to try, but dared not
afford the risk they involved. 1t is not ex-
pected that the experiments ON agricultural
farms shall be always profitable. Their
best success may often consist in proving to
the thousands of farmers who watch those
reports that they must keep shy of such
new methods. What proves profitable on
the experiment farm may safely be adopted
by any careful and generally successful
farmer. In the matter of running an ex-
pertinent economically state or national
institution cannot possibly compete with the
individual farmer who gives his own per-
sonal attention to the details OF his business.
In fact, if the experiment on the state farm
has not been wholly disastrous, good
practical farmer may often be encouraged
to try it, with a hope under better manage
ment Of making it profitable.
Much valuable information can be got
from experimental farms from experiments
that it was certain from the start would
prove pecuniary failures. The celebrated
experiments of Lawes and Gilbert on the
Rothamstead farm in England admirably
illustrate this truth. For upward of forty
years these gentlemen have grown success
slve crops each Of wheat, beans and barley
on the same land without manure. In
| money returns this of course has not paid.
but the fact that without any fertilizer ex-
cept that which crops derived from air and
| rains the yield has kept up as well as it has
must be the best possible encouragement to
| farmers for all time. If nature so nearly
| does what is required, IL must be compare
| lively easy for man to do the rest.
One destructive experiment at Rotham-
stead demonstrated completely the enor-
nous value of nitrogen as fertilizer for
wheat. In the very first year of his exper-
| iments Mr.. Lawes tested the question
whether the ash of manure or its nitrogen
was the fertilizer that plants needed. On
| one plat he put no manure. On another he
| applied fourteen tons of stable manure.
| On still another he applied the ashes of four
| teen tons of manure of equal original value
before being burned. The result was In
| wheat on the unmanured plat fifteen BUSH
els per acre on the plat where fourteen tons
of manure were applied, 2015 bushels per
| acre, and on the plat where the ash was ap-
| piled, 1434 bushels per acre. No further ex-
| pertinent in burning manure before apply>
| ing it has ever been needed on that farm or
anywhere else. Yet the demonstration of
the value of nitrogen in the manure which
burning would dissipate is we'll worth the
| cost of the experiment.
| There are happily now experimental sta
| tions in nearly every state, besides those
sustained by the general government. They
| are doing great amount Of good, and
should be encouraged to do more. There il
so great diversity in methods of farming
in various parts of the union that all OF
these stations eau work on the farm
| problems of their various localities
without interfering with each other,
A day spent in visiting these
stations aud study of the methods adopted
must prove Of great benefit to practical
farmers. They need not be overcritical Of
themethods, especially not on the basis Of
making them pecuniarily profitable. II q
farmer visits an experimental station and
keeps his eyes open he will learn much more
than he can at agricultural fairs, where
only results rather than methods are on ex-
/ hibition.