Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-02-19

WIG CCdIe VI WdSHlngUOn, ana IS
bringing to the tax payers of
the state much more than the
cost of maintenance, is admitted
by all fair minded people who
have taken the time and trouble
to investigate the work that has
been accomplished by the school
anC experiment station. A care
full study of what has been &C
complished in the matter of i'm
provement of the wheats of the
state shows that in this matter,
alone, the college has returned to
the state more than twice the
cost of maintenance for a year,
and the returns are bound to in
crease much more rapidly than
the cost of operating the college
and the farm.
In an able article by Professor
George Severance, given to the
press recently, it is shown that
last year the increased yield of
wheat in this state, due solely to
the hybrid wheats propagated at
the college experiment station af-
ter years of patient toll, was
more than enough to pay the cost
of operating the school, expert
ment station and the institute
work for a whole year. Yet the
production of these new varieties
of wheat has just begun. There
is little doubt that the increased
wealth produced annually in this
state by the new varieties of
wheat for which the experiment
station is solely responsible, will
reach 81, 900, 900 per annum with
in few years. The increased
wealth from the crop now in the
ground is estimated at more than
third of this sum.
The work done by the horticul-
tural and geological departments
of the college for the fruit indus
try is said, by competent men
who have made a study of the
work, to have added more than
half million dollars to the
wealth of the state last year.
That would conduct the entire
college and experiment farm for
two years, yet this work was but
fairy begun and fruit growing is
yet in it's infancy in Washington.
There is little doubt that in a few
years, at most, the work that has
been begun by the college in the
interest of fruit growing alone
will add one million dollars an
nually to the wealth of the state.
Then there is dairying, stock
growing, the raising of crops on
land that, under the old systems
which prevailed and yet prevail
to an all too great extent, was
left idle every alternate year, the
college is showing the way to
add hundreds of thousands of
dollars more to the wealth Of the
agriculturists of the state each
year. 1t is admitted that Wash
ington State College has done
more than any single factor in
the state to raise the quality of
live stock. Pure bred hogs, cat
tie and sheep have been sent from
the college farm to all parts of
the state and wherever one of
these animals has been received
there has been a noticeable i'm
provement in the live stock OF
that section within few years
after the animal reached the
neighborhood.
This is looking at it solely from
a financial standpoint. In addi-
ton to this side there is the
greater Importance of the work
it is doing for the youth of the
state. Young men are being
taught useful things and are be-
ing fitted to battle with the
world, being armed with practi-
cal and scientific knowlede gain
ed from careful study under some
of the most competent instructors
in the United States. Girls are