328 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OiT. Doc. 



plication of stable manure will do an orchard more good than any- 

 thing else, and my answer to that man was probably guessing, be- 

 cause we did not have data at that time which showed conclusively 

 that that was a thing which should be done. 



Let me give you another case; suppose a farmer or fruit grower 

 fifteen years ago, when I attended a great many Farmers' Institutes 

 in Pennsylvania — suppose that a farmer should ask me this question : 

 What formula would you recommend for an orchard in bearing? 

 What kind of an answer would I have given? Well I would have 

 probably said this, *'It is possible that you could use a fertilizer 

 that would contain 4% of nitrogen, but it is unlikely, because nitro- 

 gen tends to develop growth, foliage, instead of fruit, and therefore 

 I would be a little careful about that nitrogen; it is possible that 

 only two or three per cent, will be enough; put on 8% of phosphoric 

 acid, but potash is a thing all our fruit need, so put in 10% potash." 

 Now what would I tell an orchardist in this State who has bearing 

 trees? Would I give him that kind of an answer? Not at all; I 

 should say, ''We have found in our experiments, harvesting thousands 

 and thousands of bushels of apples every year, that it is not potash 

 that determines the fruiting qualities of an orchard, but it is nitro- 

 gen. We have found on twelve different soil types, that nitrogen 

 has more to do with a big crop of fruit than potash." I suppose Dr. 

 Stuart might say, "Use 6% of nitrogen, 8% of phosphoric acid;" and 

 under certain conditions I think he would drop the percentage of 

 potash to four instead of ten. What would cause him to give an 

 answer of that kind? Why, the harvesting and the weighing and 

 measuring of thousands of bushels of apples that have been harvested 

 from orchards where he is making experiments. 



Now when we must know the truth in farming if we want to win 

 out as a business proposition, and that is why we have in this State 

 today and in every other state of the Union an experiment station 

 to find out what is the truth with reference to the use of fertilizers 

 and spraying material and foods and everything of this kind. We 

 don't want to be guessing, farmers; we want to know what is right 

 when we do things on the farm, and, therefore, Congress has been 

 very wise in making rather liberal appropriations for experiment 

 stations in different states of the Union. Now to-night it would be 

 useless for me to attempt to give you very many lessons from the ex- 

 periments at State College so that I have decided to show you 

 rather a large number of pictures — in fact you will think this is a 

 sort of "movies" to-night by the time T am through — that will show 

 you the kind of work that we are doing at State College along ex- 

 perimental lines rather than the exact lessons that might be drawn 

 from these numerous experiments. I want to say here at the outset 

 that we are conducting three or four hundred different experimental 

 projects and that we stand ready at all times to give farmers and 

 friends and lecturers information concerning the results of these 

 experiments which are conducted with fertilizers, livestock, hor- 

 ticultural crops, fruits and vegetables along almost every line. 



Now if we have the light we will show some of these pictures. 

 The college operates about 1,500 acres of land on which this experi- 

 mental work is conducted, much of it, and where we provide feed for 

 our stock. Before taking up the experiment station work, I thought 

 you would be interested in seeing a few general views showing the col- 



