478 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



system of asnculture: the only Avay to turn their visits to advantage is to 

 heed this instruction by revolutionizing farm practice and organizing some 

 profitable rotation which will exclude them. 



If farmers cannot intox'pret the teachings of the weed it certainly would 

 be advisable for the agricultural experiment stations to help them in this 

 particular. The existence of these invaders means that what the farmers 

 of these states primarily need is more instruction in fundamental matters 

 concerning the handling of their land. We are glad, thei'efore, to see that 

 many of the stations are turning to this subject, and that they are doing 

 more than merely furnishing botanical descrii>tions of the various noxious 

 plants. The Cornell Station, for example, in a bulletin entitled Reflections 

 Upon Weeds, gives some sound primary instruction in agricultural science. 

 It is to be hoped that both this station and others will continue work of 

 this sort even if they forego to some extent experimentation in higher fields. 

 So long as the farmer needs elementary teaching it ought to be furnished 

 to him, even if it talies the time of officials who ought to be searching for 

 scientific truth. A late bulletin of the Geneva Experiment Station upon the 

 principles which underlie the application of commercial fertilizers deals 

 with the simplest matters, matters with which every intelligent farmer 

 ought to be familiar, and yet there is no doubt that every word of it is 

 needed. The time may come in America, as it has come in some older 

 countries, when the common schools instruct children in the principles of 

 agriculture — so that in fundamental points of practice the ordinary farmer 

 will know what to do, and will be able to tell why he does it. Until that 

 day arrives every effort to increase his knowledge of principles deserves 

 encouragement. — Editorial in Garden and Forest, July 22, 1896. 



The Honorable CoTnmissioner of Agriculture, Albany : 



Sir. — This expository bulletin is submitted, as explained in the 



prefatory note of Bulletin 119, for publication under Cliapter437 of 



the Laws of 1896. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



