The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-14
SMALL
PROPHETIC
Mr.. Jared Smith at
Social Science
Club.
GIVES OUTLINES
OF PROPOSED WORK
Objects and Scientific Methods Of
Experiment Station Work
Are Explained.

Mr.. Jared Smith, of the Hawaiian
Experiment Station, delivered an In
teresting address at the meeting of thu
Social Science Association at the hom'
of Mr.. Theodore Richards last night
his talk being in explanation of the
objects and work of the government
system of experimental stations under
the Department of Agriculture.
The substance of Mr.. Smiths address
was as follows:
"There are experimental stations of
the Department of Agriculture in every
State, Territory and District of the Unit
ed States, to each one of which the Unit
ed States Government contributes yearly
SIS, 600 per year-with the exception of
Porto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska, to which
yearly appropriations of from $4,000 to
$4,000 per year are made. The system
of experimental stations is now about
twenty-five years old, the first station
having been established in Middletown.
Connecticut, in 1875, but the general
movement started, practically, only
about fourteen years ago. In 1887, there
were seventeen experimental station, and
now there are over sixty in the United
States.
1.-THE work of experimental stations is
divided into two distinct sections, the
practical and the scientific. The scien-
tific work has been the working out OF
methods of investigation. The practical
has considered almost every possible
line from the growth of plants 10 the
defeat of their insect enemies, the exam
nation of soils, study of fertilizers, mar
keting of crops and Improvement, by Sc
lection and crossing, of fruits and grams
..Jrrigation. has received great deal OF
attention in California and Colorado, and
in the Southwest; the study OF SOIL al
kali sugar-making in Louisiana, the
making of wine in California, ana poui-
try-raising and the raising OF pees ~
various places; the feeding ana iatten-
ing of animals. and the Improvement OF
breed. Dairying has taken up great
deal of attention in the Southern States,
and the investigations have even fnvad-
ed the domesticity of the home; baking
powders and methods of cooking have
been investigated; dietary study has
been taken up recently, and the actuai
value of foods as expressed in heat and
energy, have been figured upon and COM
pared with each other with view TO
determining which are the best kinds of
food for man, and for different people
according to their occupations.
1.-THE work done at the Connecticut ex-
perimental station is probably the most
advanced undertaken anywhere in the
world. for determining the heat and en-
ergy and the exact value of food and
cost of living.
Is MANY experimental stations have done
work of similar nature in regard to food
for animals. There is wide range of
foods for almost all classes of domestic
animals, and these offer great field for
and experiment
There is scarcely any phase of agri-
culture, in its body sense. which has not
been investigated by one or another OF
the stations in various States. The Min
nesota station has devoted the last ten
years to the improvement of wheat
crops and has, by selection, created
strain of wheat which yields five BUSH
els per acre more than the best variety
of wheat previously grown in the North
west. Southern stations have done a
great deal of work on the cotton crops;
as a result, the cotton crop brings the
most money from foreign countries to
this country, of any of the products ex-
ported from the United States. The ex-
port is $500 .0O0,O 900 per year.
"The Hawaiian experimental station
was provided for at the session of Con-
gress in the spring of 1900. An appro-
priation of $4,000 was made for station
work here and at the session of Con-
gress just closed on the 4th of last
March an appropriation of $4,000 was
made for the next year, ending June 30.
1902 The work for the nrst year or
two, will. of necessity, because of the
small amount available, be almost entire
" in the nature Of foundation for fu-
ture working The land must be clear
ed and planted, the buildings erected,
farming machinery and supplies procur-
ed, and laboratory apparatus arranged
FOR. The general preparations will alb
sorb the major part of the appropria-
lions for the next two years.
after the initial work is accomplish
I'd. the money can be spent for expert
and probably by the first of
July, 1902, the experimental station will
De in shape to undertake effectively the
solution of almost any problem which
,rises.
my instructions for the work here
cover four different lines. First, and in
he opinion of Secretary of Agriculture
the most important, Is that of a
,etter food supply for the Islands. So
ong as the Hawaiian Islands depend up
IN single crop, no matter how remu-
lerative that crop may be, and so long
rom the Mainland, or from other coun- |
ries, the Islands will be to great ex- |
ent, a source of danger to the United |
states, in that the Islands would be |
completely at the mercy of foreign |
nemy in time of war. 1t would not |
axe very long to starve out, or very |
materially interfere with the food supply |
4 the people, although they might not |
e starved out In a literal sense, and If |
he ports were blockaded the situation
sould certainly be very serious.
1.-THE cultivation of food crops and the
uilding up, to a certain extent, of GER
ain class of small farmers, men of mod
rate means-which would be of the
reatest value to the Is1ands-is a great I
ask. and that is most devoutly to be
7ished
Another line of work which have
cen directed to pursue. is the possibility
extending the dairying industry of
Stands. It is the opinion of Secretary
wilson that every man should be able to
wn his own COW and pigs and chickens
'efore every man can own his own COW
nd pigs and chickens, however, we have
OF to grow something for them to eat