32 Report of the Director. 



6. Experiments and Demonstrations on Farms. — It is now an 

 accepted part of the work of an agricultural college to make demon- 

 strations and tests on farms and in gardens. There are three pur- 

 poses in this extension experiment work : ( i ) To illustrate or teach, 



— to instruct the co-operator in methods, to set him at the working 

 out of his own problems, to bring him into touch with the latest dis- 

 coveries and points of view. (2) To demonstrate or determine in 

 various parts of the State the value or the inefficiency of various new 

 theories and discoveries, — to determine how far these newer ideas 

 are applicable to local conditions. (3) To discover new truth, which 

 may be worthy of record in bulletins : this is usually the least of the 

 results that follow from such experiments, because the experiments 

 are not under perfect control nor continuously under the eye of a 

 trained observer. This kind of teaching provides laboratory work 

 for the farmer on his own farm. 



In our own case the general plan of work is mutual or co-operative, 



— the farmer to provide land and labor and to have the crop, the 

 expert to give advice and supervision and, so far as possible, to 

 inspect the work. In some cases the College furnishes seeds and 

 other materials. It does not furnish fertilizers. The benefit of the 

 experiment or demonstration is expected to accrue mostly to the 

 person on whose place the work is done. 



We are rapidly approaching a turning-point in this demonstration 

 work; we should either extend and deepen it, or consider a funda- 

 mental modification in the plan. This kind of work is no longer in 

 its initiate stage. 



The statistics of co-operative or demonstration experiments for 



1905-06 are as follows : 



Number of experiments in charge of department of agronomy SOI 



Number of persons experimenting, about 400 



Number of experimental plats, about i.iSO 



Number of counties in which work was done 45 



Number of experiments in charge of department of horticulture 3° 



Number of experiments in charge of department of entomology 15 



Number of co-operative record-tests by poultry sub-department 125 



There were also experiments of a similar kind conducted by the 

 departments of agricultural chemistry and botany. 



7. Tests and Inspections.— Various kinds of tests and inspections 

 fall to the colleges of agriculture. One of the leading groups is the 

 testing of milk for butter-fat in order to determine whether the cow 

 is entitled to be recorded in the official registry of the breed. These 

 tests are paid for by the breeders, or their associations, but the work 



