AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 293 



found out that where we attempt to fatten animals when kept 

 separate, they never thrive as well as when two or more are kept 

 together. It seems that two animals, or three, or four kept to- 

 gether, eat better. They are somewhat jealous of each other, and 

 each afraid the other will get more than its share ; and they cat 

 more, and consequently thrive better on that account. 



Dr. Gregory. The committee have taken it for granted, I sup- 

 pose, that all the agricultural colleges, or institutions that are 

 teaching agriculture, are conducting experiments. It is of course 

 understood, that agricultural colleges are not for the purpose of 

 experimenting, first and foremost, but for the purpose of teaching 

 agriculture, or the branches of learning relating to agriculture, 

 and it has not been uniformly accepted that the agricultural col- 

 leges are to be experiment stations. They are not necessarih'- 

 experiment stations. One of the questions for us to settle is, how 

 far they can be made experiment stations, how far their forces 

 and funds ca-n be diverted and used for this purpose. In Europe 

 experiment stations are sometimes connected with the agricultural 

 institutions, but not always. If I am rightly informed, there are 

 some thirty-three different agricultural experiment stations in 

 Europe, under the charge of some sixty agricultural chemists, 

 besides other parties assisting them. These experiment stations, 

 some of them at least, are found connected with the institutions. 

 Those tliat I saw myself were always connected with them, be- 

 cause I did not turn aside to visit any of those that were not; but 

 many of them, like the celebrated experiment station of Lawes and 

 Gilbert, are not connected with any of the institutionsof learning. 

 We know this, that the country is demanding of the institutions 

 that they shall conduct experiments. The agricultural public 

 expects us to conduct experiments. They arc constantly calling, 

 through the agricultural press, at agricultural conventions and 

 otherwise, upon these colleges to help them to settle questions 

 relating to agriculture. Whatever might have been claimed at 

 the outset to be the duty of these colleges, I trust we shall fulfil a 

 public demand by instituting experimentation. It seems to be 

 the judgment of the gentlemen present here, and all I have known 

 in connection with the agricultural colleges, that experiments 

 shall be prosecuted. What has been already said here will, per- 

 haps, sufficiently lead us to infer the great difficulty attending 

 these experiments. But we have been told long ago that there is 

 no excellence anywhere without great, labor. The truth docs not 



