168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AT MAINE STATE 



COLLEGE. 



By Pkof. J. E. Farrington, State College, Orono. 



In the short time assigned me this afternoon, I wish briefly 

 to present to your notice some of the experiments in practical 

 agriculture that are in process of trial at the State College at 

 Orono. Most of the gentlemen present are, I presume, 

 practical farmers. You find, in your experience from year 

 to year, questions presenting themselves for solution to which 

 you can give no satisfactory answer. Yet the success or fail- 

 ure of your labors may depend upon the answers which in 

 practice these questions receive from you. 



I doubt if there is any calling in life where the problems to 

 be solved are more numerous, complex and difficult, than 

 are those forced upon us in practical agriculture. The soils 

 we cultivate show marked differences in their available fertil- 

 ity. Peculiarities of climate and of season exert important 

 influences upon our crops greatly affecting their yield ; the 

 time of planting and the methods of cultivation tending to 

 still more complicate our labors and throw around the farmer's 

 calling an air of mystery. Discouraged by difficulties that 

 beset him, the timid farmer forsakes his fields and seeks an 

 easier life ; an unthinking man, with a perseverance com- 

 mendable in itself, but unwisely directed, plods stolidly on in 

 the way of his fathers, sure that what was good enough for 

 them will answer all his demands ; while the thoughtful, 

 intelligent farmer, asks of his neighbors their practice, reads 

 the recorded experience of i^ractical men, studies the teaching 

 of sciences relating to his calling, and seeks by actual experi-. 

 ments to learn from Nature herself the teaching that she, 

 better than any other, is able to impart. Just here comes 



