68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



There are ten plats of corn, on one-tenth of an acre, 

 each plat planted at the same time, and under equivalent cir- 

 cumstances. There were various quantities of fertilizers ap- 

 plied. None on the first plat ; then 200 pounds, 400 pounds, 

 800 pounds, 1,600 pounds. The corn was treated alike in 

 every respect save one. A line was drawn through the cen- 

 ter, and the lower half received cultivation and the upper half 

 received no cultivation. Now, gentlemen, if I said that in 

 eight cases out of ten the uncultivated plats produced more 

 corn than the cultivated, you would not believe it ; if I stated 

 the opposite, you certainly would believe it. But the fact was, 

 that eight of those ten plats showed that cultivation decreased 

 the amount of corn, and two of them only showed a little in 

 favor of cultivation. And yet, because that is counter to our 

 opinion, we would not be willing to accept that experiment. 

 If it proved just the opposite, that cultivation was beneficial, 

 we would not question the result from so many plats all 

 showing the same thing. 



Fortunately, in this case, I had another series of plats, 

 exactly the same, half of which were cultivated and half un- 

 cultivated ; and in this case, in every single instance, the 

 cultivation showed great benefit. 



Now, that series of experiments with forty plats teaches us 

 absolutely nothing in regard to cultivation, but it does teach 

 us the caution required in carrying out experiments, and cau- 

 tion in regard to generalizing on insufficient data. And our 

 experiments with fertilizers comes under this same category. 



Question. What is your opinion as to the cause of the 

 difference ? 

 • Dr. Sturtevant. I have none at all. 



Question. Was all the corn planted alike as to depth ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. Precisely alike. You must remember 

 that these experiments were carried on with the amplest re- 

 sources. The depth of planting, and everything connected 

 with them, was carried out exactly according to the plan. I 

 should horrify you if I gave you the details of the expense. 

 The lines were run by a transit, the seed dropped, when 



