The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-12-31
Farrn.ng IN the Philippines.

An experimental farm is to be established
some two hundred miles from Manila for
the purpose of ascertaining what seeds
and plants from this country can be sue
cessfuIly cultivated IN the Philippines
The University Of California VIII send the
required material from its experiment
station
This is good idea, and it is TO be hoped
that it viii be carried out with success
The old-fashioned system Of COLOMBIA ton
made it necessary for the coIonist to dis
cover for himself what he could or could
not do in his new home, and much money
and time were sometimes wasted By him
in finding out how far the methods of
farming which he learned in boyhood we're
available in the colony The experimental
farm viii settle many of these problems
for him. if it is properly conducted. and it
would be good thing if such an enterprise
could find place in some older parts of
the country as well as in the Philippines
and the West Indies
It was the fashion for a long time to
deTide scientific farming; but farming is
science all the same, and every success
ful cultiyator OF the soil owes his pros
perity to scientific methods. whether he
knows it or not. The trouble with some
OF the pseudo-scientifc methods employed
by gentlemen farmers was that they ap-
Piled perfectly correct knowledge in the
wrong way and attached Importance to the
wrong things. The modern agricultural
college is planted in the midst of a fam
ing district, and its students are the sons
g.
" to detect, either for themselves or with
me help of their parents. any errors
which may be found in the methods Of the
professors. Moreover. most Of these pro-
fessors are themselves countrymen. and
the school is self-supporting, having its
own garden, dairy. stables, and other ap-
Purtenances OF a large and weIl-regulated
farm The study Of farming, pursued IN
this way. is bound to be as profitable as
the study OF engineering, mathematics, or
the languages perhaps more so.
The great trouble with the farmer who
becomes e colonist Is that he is generally
not well-sdueated man, and has only the
miscellaneous store Of information which
he gained at home. and his own common
sense. to guide him in doing his work IN
der conditions EIUTe ur less unfamiliar.
Such an experimental station as the one
proposed ought to save him good deal of
trouble, II IT is properly conducted. It
goes without saying that those in charge
should be selected from the natives Of the
surrounding country, as well as from
American scientists. When people have
lived and fsrnaed in a country ali their
lives they generally know great deal
sbout the business which viii be useful
to the neweomer: and while the progress
siye American, with his genius for ex-
pertinent. is likely to discover new posi-
bilities in the soil. the spaniard or Fiji
FiRo or Porto Rfcan, who has had expe-
rienee VITA it, viii undoubtedly be able
to tell him something.
TITS experimental station should. within
yesr. be prepared to furnish information
enough to be of great assistance 10 the
colonist, rich or poor, and in Eve years :;
the most It should have discovered most
Of the possibilities open to the ordinary
farmer IN the islands After that il
may be devoted. as such stations II this