THE SECRETAEY'S PORTFOLIO. 323 



recklessly destroy forests may well say, not "after us the deluges," but "after 

 us drouth or delucc." 



"HARDY" IN HORTICULTURE. 



The Rural New Yorker says that hardy is a relative term and often when 

 used means absolutely nothing, for many plants and trees that do perfectly well 

 in "Wisconsin may not prove " hardy " in Ohio. Or again, plants that may suc- 

 ceed for years in one place may by some train of circumstances be injured or 

 killed outright. So that hardiness does not vary with thie parallels — that is 

 plants do not necessarily grow less hardy as they are taken northward or vice 

 versa. Winter killing, the Rural thinks, is not concomitant with want of hardi- 

 ness. "Whenever a plant, from unsuitable soil or situation, is restricted in its 

 season of growth, the plant must in some way suffer. But as the damage is not 

 apparent until it has passed through the trying seasons of winter and spring, 

 the remote causes thereof are lost sight of, while the severity of winter is alone 

 held accountable. 



WHO SHALL EXPERIMENT. 



Judge Ramsdell, who is alive to the interests of agriculture, urges that 

 Michigan should have an experimental station in the hands of the people ; that 

 is, that the people should feel free to go to it for information. Now, in lines of 

 experiment that the individual cannot afford to follow out the farmer has only 

 his college to look to, and it is not the business of this college to perform 

 experiments. Its work is to teach young people to become successful in indus- 

 trial pursuits, and it is impossible to crowd into the work of the professors 

 these lines of experiment that would require their entire time and thought to 

 successfully prosecute. The judge argues that our State cannot afford to be 

 ■without a station which is carried on in the direct interests of our agriculture. 

 "We are glad to reach the next generation of agriculturists by educating boys 

 for farmers, but we want some immediate results, some direct answers to diffi- 

 cult questions that experts can answer. Such a station should be in connection 

 ■with the college, but should have a special work to do. It would relieve the 

 college of labor that it can now only attempt, not perform, and at the same 

 time be a valuable auxiliary to the instruction there. 



0. W. G. 



