The herald., 1896-09-19
SOME SCIENTIFIC EARNINGS OF
PROF. HILGARD

PROF. HlLGARD.
When Prof. Hilgard was at the last
Farmers institute he said that he was
especially sent down here and charged
by the regents of the university to ask
what the ranchers of this section of the
state most needed in the way of help
from the university.
We have been telling Prof. Hilgard
for the last five years that what the
ranchers needed more than anything
else was to know how to raise fruit of
better quality or greater quantity or
both than they are now doing.
We have also told him how this could
be done and have actually demonstrated
how it had been done. At first Prof Hill
gard said we could not do it, in the way
we pointed out, and after we had actu-
ally demonstrated that it could be done
he belittled not only our efforts, but
the system by which we arrived at con-
c)usons. See his last report, page 173.
Mr.. Shinn said in his address at the
Farmers institute that there are over
900 growing fruit trees in Califor-
mia. Prof. Hilgard has said plainly that
test plots were not adapted to Califor-
mia because it would take too long by
that method to get at results.
At the last Farmers institute he said
1--WE cannot carry on fertilizer
experimentation at the stations
on virgin soils, but he gave
himself dead away" when he said few
minutes later, FERTILIZER experimental
ton Is matter to be carried on by pri-
vate enterprise and farmers clubs"
Although in his last report he claims
that the method is complex and intricate
and should be carried on by experts He
has, a SO, said that it takes too long to
Get conclusions by this method. Well.
|. is about five years since we pointed
olt to the learned professor the method
and three or four years since we put
1t into Practical use. During all that
time Pr>f. Ililgard, sticking to his soil
analysis theory, has not shown how he
has impr wed the quality or Quantity Of
single crop, so far as we have been
able to lea n. although he does show the
resu is of ! ,me of the work of the writer
in his last report, which shows how
crop was IL proved and then goes on to
belittle the method by which the crop
was improved.
AS to the impracticability of Prof.
Hilgard's method of analysing the soil
to dete pnine what plant foods are neces-
sary, we have only to look at his report,
pages 69-91, showing the amount of work
that was done on the 10 acres at Chino
There are 260 analysis determinations
made from this 10-acre plot and a con-
sentative estimate, woald be that 1t
would take chemist at least twenty
days to make them. Assuming for the
minute that these analyses are Of some
practical value (but they are noD it
would take a chemist two days to anal
we the soil frosl an acre, or to deter
mine by analyses the 800, 900 acres of
trees alre dy set out in California it
would take 100000 days work or it would
take 1000 chemists at work 300 days in the
year in order to analyze the soils of the
orchards alread! put out, to say moth
Ing about the Aer crops in the state:
or it would take for these analyses the
modest sum of i3,600.0oO and accord
Ing to Prof. Hill ards report it would
he necessary to d this work every year,
because he shows conclusively that no
two samples OF VI e soil analysed alike
on his 10acre pit !, and he says In eff
feet that not even duplicates from these
plots would be al re in seasons of diff
ferent amounts OF precipitation of rain.
Here is practical farming with VEN
Sesnce.
We show below by conversations with
fanchers in the neighborhood of the eX
pertinent station of what practical value
this immense amount of work on the ten
acre plot at Chino has been to them.
There is one conclusion in regard to
this immense amount of work on this
ten acre tract that Prof. Hilgard has not
drawn, and that is the only conclusion
Iflal can ne CrdNH 1TOIl tillG WuIh, That
each particular spot where a beet seed
would be planted would have to be anal.
yZed in order to know what plant foods
could properly be applied, for no two
spots have analysed alike. This being
SO and there being ovor 10000 peets per
acre and 5000 acres of them, 1t would re-
Guire $50, 100000 analyses to be made at
Chino and Anaheim; or, allowing thir-
teen determinations for a chemist per
day, it would be equivalent to 27,G92, AGO
days work; or it would take 92,30S
chemists per year to make these deter
limitations; or at the rate the chemist is
paid at Berkeley. it would cost on the
5000 acres of beet lands for chemists
alone, to say nothing of chemicals and
chemical apparatus, the modest sulG of
$166, 154 400; or 1t would take a row of
desks, end for end, allowing a desk of
ten feet In length to each chmeist, ITO
miles long. To say nothing of the i'm
mense armies of people it would take to
keep track of the spots where the sam
pies were taken from and the beet seeds
We're to be dropped and the application
OF the different fertilizers to each par
tioular spot. And this is called scientific
farming!
At the rate Prof. Hilgard has been
graduating students at his agricultural
college it would only take go, 900 years to
graduate the requisite number Of chem
lists to do this work, provided none died
L.
gard said In his address at Pomona.
There Is very little use for agricultural
experts in this country, as the soil is
fresh and requires but little art in cult
vation.'
1t is little wonder that Prof. Hilgard
If he has been In the sublime contempla-
ton of spending the vast sum of money
above named and organizing the vast
army of chemists, should have told the
people of Riverside, when they asked
him how they could grow their oranges
sweeter and with thinner rinds: Don't
ask conundrums;" or when the people at
Pomona asked him what was the cause
of variegated leaves on the orange and
if 1t was disease what was the remedy
that he should have gone off into q
guessing dissertation on the causes and
have neglected to give the remedy; or
that he had not had time to read Miss
Tyrrelrs thesis in his report, so that
he might have learned that there was a
male black scale and informed his as
sistant. Prof Woodwork, of that fact,
Miss Tyrrell had evidently had time to
read the report of the state board of
horticulture. where she undoubtedly
Warned the fact.