INSTITUTE TALKS. 501 



there has been a strong demand for experimentation, and so our college has 

 attempted to do what it could in that direction. I attended the meeting of 

 the State Horticultural Society last December, and I found them anxious to 

 have many experiments tried; and these our Prof. Bailey is working toward; 

 for example, he is seeking now to test the possibility of securing a peach that 

 will be hardy in the greater part of the State and an apple that will be hardy 

 in Northern Michigan. Suppose in this work ninety-nine experiments in 

 every hundred should be flat failures as far as any valuable outcome is con- 

 cerned. It might easily be that the hundredth one would many times over 

 pay for the entire outlay. Think what an amount of wealth would be added 

 to the country by the addition of five bushels per acre to the wheat crop or 

 the oat crop! 



I used to consider the United States Department of Agriculture a waste of 

 money, until I had occasion to investigate its workings and found that 

 though there was a good deal of rubbish yet there were single hits which had 

 been of more value than the entire cost of the department from first to last. 

 One instance of an experiment in which millions of dollars was added to the 

 value of the California wheat crop. 



I used to think the State should undertake this work, but you know how 

 impatient our legislators are for immediate results, and in this work imme- 

 diate results are not often realized; but the United States Congress has larger 

 resources, and twenty-five years' waiting for results does not seem so hope- 

 less with the large interests involved, in the Washington legislation. 



And so certain representatives of the Agricultural College united in formu- 

 lating the Hatch Experiment Station Bill which, if it becomes a law, I 

 think the next twenty-five years will not pass by without showing results that 

 yfill repay many fold the entire cost. 



EXHAUSTED LANDS OF MARYLAND. 



At the Hanover Institute in connection with President Willits' remarks as 

 to exhausted lands, Mr. W. Wetmore said: In 1845 I went to Frederick 

 county, Maryland. It and Washington county were the best counties in the 

 State — excellent wheat lands. 



The farmers there had just taken up the idea of preserving the fertility of 

 their lands with clover and land plaster, the plaster being brought from 

 Nova Scotia. 



They plowed the clover all under, being afraid to spare any for their cattle, 

 and right there is where they made their mistake. 



Live stock is the great manure mill and the clover should be run through it. 



I returned in '53 and '54 and in '76. In the 'oOs they were all depending 

 on plowing in clover and plaster. 



In '76 all the plaster mills were grinding bones instead, and they were rais- 

 ing only 8 to 12 bushels per acre \There they had raised 15 to 40 bushels. 

 They were not shiftless farmers; they were "10 rail high " farmers ; but 

 their trouble had been in not running the clover through cattle. We must 

 keep stock. The manure heap is the farmer's bank. 



Clover without stock will not save the farms. 



