Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1913-04-22
What Is An Experiment
Station?

stations may deem it amusing that any
one should ask the question. What is
an experiment station?" Yet the
question is being asked very frequent
ly, and the responsibility of answering
il falls TO us. The purpose, therefore
of this paper is TO answer it in such a
manner that every man, woman and
child in Texas may have the proper
conception of experiment station
work, what it is for and the good il
accomplishes. In FL Paso recently
those big-hatted, broad-shouldered
level-headed cattle raisers passed a
resolution endorsing the work of the
Texas Experiment Station and the A.
& NJ. College, with the following pre-
misses:
Whereas, we recognize the work
of the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Stations as being strictly fundamental
to the development of Texas agricul-
ture and live stock interests, and that
they are the agencies which throw
light upon our farm and live stock
problems, making the farm and ranch
at once better business PROPOSE
ton and a more desirable place to
live" p All of which goes
to show that the rural people realize
good thing when they see it and
recognize that the problems of pro-
duction are primary, and that the Tex
as Experiment Stations and A. & NJ.
College are. the only agencies which
may ever be expected to solve them
Quite a different story from that
which appeared in the press recently
from men trying to lead the agricul
ttral people, and yet advising them
that production is not the problem;
that marketing is the only study to
be made.
Some of our people think that an
experiment station is a failure unless
it is profitable as measured in dol
lars and cents. In fact, there are
few who contend that an experiment
station ought not only to be profitable,
but more so than any other farm in
the country. The reader will, obvi-
ously, perceive that those people are
thinking of a demonstration farm,
which, of course should be profitable,
and are, to that extent, misusing the
term, experiment station" A great
many people think that demonstration
farms are all that are necessary, but
a greater number realize that it is
by far more important that farm prob.
lens be solved, in order that the in
formation may be obtained and dem
onstrated before the eyes of Texas
farmers. In other words, experiment
-tation is the first step and demonstra
ton the second. Since We have well
organized demonstration force in this
State, paid chiefly by the Federal
Government, there is no legitimate
reason why any citizen of Texas
should ask that the experiment sta
ton work he abolished and that these |
farms be transformed into profitable, |
or demonstration farms. Demonstra !
ton work is heeting, whereas results |
of investigation work, once obtained |
are permanent. A demonstration is
merely means of disseminating the
information of the experiment sta
lions among the people, and, therefore, |
in economic Importance, is not to be
classed with that of the stations. Al
this juncture l might state that there
is not a more valuable line of agricul
tural propaganda being used in this
State at the present time than that OF
the demonstration wark 1t goes hand
in hand with that of the experiment
stations, but we are trying to make
it clear that demonstration work can
not be substituted on the Texas EXpe-
ment Station farms for that of inves
tigation.
The very nature of experiment sta
ton work is such that profits of the
station cannot always be expressed in
the same terms as the profits acruing |
from a Brazos bottom plantation.
Some people say that many things on
the experiment station are unproft-
able, and while we admit that certain
studies will show up on the books as
loss. If we are to consider each eX-
pertinent a matter of monetary spec
ulation, but If we are to consider the
experiments which show adverse re-
suits, nothing more or less than
gradual process of elimination of falla-
cies, with view Of arriving at def
mite knowledge of what will be profit
able when practiced by the farmer
the whole expense of an experiment
station then becomes, obviously, a
most profitable investment. The |
profits of an experiment station do not {
show up on the station books but if {
looked for, will be found in the peck