The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-30

Under the auspices of the Mill Creek
Farmers association very successful
and instructive farmers institute was
held in the Mill Creek assembly rooms,
this county, yesterday. The meeting
was presided over by n. Don Jensen of
the local association, who also made
the opening address of welcome to the
large gathering and introduced Prof.
L. Foster, director of the Agricultural
Experiment station at Logan. Prof.
Foster read a paper on the work of
the experiment station and was given
the closest attention.
EXPERIMENT STATIONS.
Every department of agriculture, the
speaker said, is fast falling into line
with the professions, and the man who
makes advancement in any of the ru-
raj occupations does so by the lever OF
brain power just as surely as does the
lawyer or the statesman. The farmer
is awakened to the fact that all other
industries and the professions had
their well-planned and Skillfully man
aged organizations, and, in conse-
quence were making vast strides ahead
OF the soil til1er.
1t was no doubt the general advance
Tnent in other industries and in the
professions, as Well as the improve
ment in business methods along the
whole mercantile line that stimulated
those interested in the vast farm in
dustTies to action, and the present
comprehensive agricultural experiment
station system of the United States is
the result. Agriculture is so essential
10 all other arts and industries, and its
success is of such vital importance to
all classes of people, that it was
deemed the duty of the government to
extend its aid TO this industry by es-
tablishing and maintaining the expert
ment stations.
A little more than 40 years since, the
first experiment station was estab-
lished in Germany. Twenty-one years
ago. in 1875, the first station was begun
in the United States. In 1887 congress
passed the Hatch act, which gave each
state and territory $15, 600 annually for
the maintenance of an agricultural
station. The states provide the land
and buildings, leaving the government
appropriation to be expended chiefly
in carrying on agricultural inVeStlSa-
tions and publishing reports of results
Director True briefly states that An
agricultural experiment station is an
institution in which scientific and prac-
Iical Investigations are made with
view to improving the methods of ag-
riculture, or introducing new crops or
industries It's primary object is
TO apply scientific principles
and methods to the problems of agri-
culture. The station seeks to use, for
the benefit of agriculture, the stores of
knowledge regarding the operations OF
nature which science has accumulated,
and to employ in the service Of agri-
culture the trained brains and hands
of scientists. 1t is the purpose of the
station TO institute Investigations that
will increase accurate information re-
garding the great principles which un-
derlie the growth of plants and ami
mails, and to make new applications of
well-knoWn principles in the practical
work of the farm. In short, the sta
ton is an organized effort of science
TO aid the farmer"
The most successful farmers-those
who get the most out of their land,
their cattle, their crops, their fertilizers,
their implements, their labor, are those
who experiment themselves most in
dustriously and skilfully, and who take
the fullest advantage of the expert
mentS of others. Experimentation as a
business, however. is too expensive for
the farmer to engage in, hence the
benefit and utility OF the government
experiment station.
Nearly a million dollars are spent an
ment stations in the United States.
While this seems a very large aggre-
gate expenditure, it involves the use
of only 80 cents for each 81, 600 worth of
our agricultural product to improve the
quality and quantity of that product
From this point of view the expense of
maintaining the stations cannot be
considered unreasonably large es
pecially when it is considered how wide
is the diversification of our agriculture
and the great need of more rational
and profitable methods of farming also
that 30,000,000 of our population are
directly dependent upon agriculture for
their support.
At present over $50 specialists are
employed by the stations to carry on
their Investigations. over 400 bulletins
are issued annually, averaging 10000
copies to each bulletin. making over
1900, 00O in the aggregate distributed
In so seemingly simple a subject as
pig feeding. one might think there was
nothing TO learn, but the stations have
shown quite differently. 1t was natlIr-
ally supposed by all, even by such au-
thorities on feeding as COburn. Harris
and Stewart, that cooking feed for hogs
would improve its quality, and give
better results. One experimental esti- /
mates that enough money was ex-
pended annually for cooking apparatus
before the stations showed the folly of
1t, to almost pay the entire amount ex-
pended by the stations. In extensive
experiments with various concentrated
foods, as whole corn, corn meal, peas.
barley. etc, the loss of nutritive value
through cooking was from to 20 per
cent.
In feeding for beef, it has been demon
strated by repeated experiments. that
much the larger profit comes from the
first years growth. and that a steer
should be matured for market at from
20 to a months of age TO get the great
est profit.
The improved methods of preventing
The smuts of the small grains. potato
scab and other plant diseases; the
effective insecticides and the con
venient machinery for applying them,
all have their source in the station.
No class of producers have been more
benefited by the station investigations
than the gardener and fruit grower =
The work of the different stations is
largely determined by local needs or
demands. They act as bureaus of in
formation on many questions of prac- !
teal interest TO the farmers of their
several localities, and seek by prac-
teal tests TO devise better methods OF
agriculture. and to introduce new crops
and live stock or TO establish new agri-
cultural industries; they investigate the
operations of nature in the air. water.
soil, plants and animals in order to find
out the principles which can be an
piled to the betterment of the processes
and products of agriculture.