New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 21 



ments, horticultural work occupying the larger part. Only a 

 small part of the land is given up to general farming as a means 

 of sustaining the dairy herd. 



The Station authorities are sometimes questioned as to the 

 profits of the farm under scientific management. The farm does 

 not return a profit in dollars and cents and if it did, it would be 

 a miserable failure. It is regarded very properly as a piece of 

 apparatus to be used in agricultural investigation and when so 

 used, it not only returns no profits, but is a heavy bill of expense. 

 This would be easily understood by anyone who would take the 

 trouble to learn the details of our experimental work. For in- 

 stance, the varieties of fruit on the farm number several thousand, 

 at times as many as 10,000. With the large fruits there are but 

 two or three trees of a variety and with the small fruits only a 

 short row of vines or bushes for each kind. Careful records are 

 kept of these fruits which, in the case of the varieties that we have 

 bred, are much in detail and time-consuming. The fruits can not 

 be handled to advantage commercially because there is so small an 

 amount of each kind. 



As another illustration, there is under cultivation a twelve-acre 

 field that has been handled experimentally for sixteen years. This 

 field is divided into eight plats and is devoted to a rotation of 

 crops. In order to secure the data desired, the weighed fer- 

 tilizers and farm manures are put on with great care so as to se- 

 cure uniform distribution. The crops are weighed and sampled. 

 Great pains is taken to secure uniformity of treatment on all the 

 plats outside of the differences in fertilizers. This requires care 

 in every detail at a much greater expense than would be incurred 

 on a farm managed merely foir commercial purposes. 



The dairy herd here is a fine one and very productive, but it is 

 constantly under experimental observation for such purposes as 

 testing milking machines, determining the important factors in 

 milk sanitation and making observations of other kinds. 'Now all 

 this work can not be done in the way which is essential to accurate 

 experimentation without incurring several times the expense that 



