48 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 



assistants; rooms for the storage of samples, and for photographic purposes, on the 

 second floor, and store rooms for chemicals and apparatus and grinding and milling 

 rooms in the basement. This building has proved very satisfactory and has, no doubt, 

 been an important factor in facilitating the work of the Division. 



The Staff. — For the past seven years the staff has consisted of the chemist, two 

 assistant chemists, an assistant in connection with the clerical work of the Division — 

 acting also as secretary — and a laboratory man to do the grinding, sampling, washing, 

 etc., and who acts as caretaker of the building. 



Both in research work and that done more directly for farmers by analysis and 

 correspondence, there has been a continued and marked increase since the establish- 

 ment of the Division. It is due to this fact that it has not been possible for a number 

 of years to undertake all the investigations thrust upon us. The need for more export 

 assistance in the laboratory is now very keenly felt and must shortly be supplied 

 unless we are to very materially restrict our field of usefulness, 



THE KELATIONSHIP OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTUEE. 



The relationship that exists between chemistry and agriculture is a very intimate 

 and important one. Modern and progressive agriculture implies and compels the 

 application of certain principles which have chemistry for their basis. So close, indeed, 

 is this relationship that some have said that ' up-to-date farming is merely putting 

 into practice tie teachings of agricultural chemistry.' This does not mean that the 

 farmer must be a chemist; any intelligent man can understand the application of these 

 principles without a special study of chemistry. But to-day it is well nigh impossible 

 to carry on successfully any branch of agriculture, — e.g., stock raising, dairying, fruit- 

 growing — without an application of that knowledge regarding soils and animals 

 and plants which chemistry alone furnishes. The requirements of crops and animals, 

 the constitution and the needs of soils, the most economical means whereby soil fertility 

 may be maintained, the nature and amounts of fertilizing ingredients in manures, the 

 relative nutritive value of forage crops and cattle foods, the composition of dairy 

 products, the constitution and preparation of fungicides and insecticides, and a host 

 of similar and equally important questions can only be satisfactorily answered through 

 the aid of chemistry. 



THE CHARACTER AND SCOPE OF THE WORK. 



In order the better to aid Canadian farming it has been the studied policy from 

 the outset in all the departments of the Experimental Farm system to keep in touch 

 with the farmer. By so doing we have had an opportunity not only of rendering im- 

 mediate and direct assistance^ but also of learning, at first hand, those problems that 

 are confronting the agriculturist in different parts of the Dominion and which require 

 what might be termed scientific aid for their solution. 



Our work may, therefore, be said to fall under two great subdivisions: education 

 and investigation, though between these there is naturally no sharp line of demarc- 

 ation. The channels through which information is chiefly disseminated are as fol- 

 lows. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Letters are received daily in which questions are asked relating 1o soils and their 

 treatment; manures and fertilizers, their composition and use; cattle foods; insecti- 

 cides, dairy products, &c., &c. This branch of our work has steadily grown, and this 

 fact betokens, I believe, an increasing and fuller appreciation on the part of the prac- 

 tical farmer of the value of chemical knowledge. The education of the individual is 



