258 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



crop to the best advantage. How many are there who can tell which crop pay 

 the greatest profit, or which their soil and climate are best adapted to. 



I am forcibly reminded of the difference in effort made by farmers and 

 those of other occupations when I recall a visit made to the great shops of 

 William Deering & Co., of Chicago, manufacturers of reapers, mowers, twine 

 binders, etc. In showing mc around their extensive factory, I came to a room 

 in which were quite a number of men at work, and my guide explained by say- 

 ing, this is our experimental room. He said they employed about twenty of 

 the most skillful and practical mechanics and inventors, all the while, who 

 did nothing else but experiment, with a view to improve their binders and 

 other machines, and at the same time to cheapen their construction, if pos- 

 sible. These experts were sent into the fields to carefully watch the workings 

 of the machines, and if any part failed to do the work satisfactorily, or was 

 too light to be durable, or was too cumbersome and could be made lighter 

 without sacrificing strength and durability, it was reported, and experiments 

 were immediately made to remedy the difficulty, and they keep trying until the 

 desired result is obtained, and many thousands of dollars are thus expended 

 in experiments which prove fruitless. Still, in the end it pays them, for only 

 by this means are they enabled to keep pace with other enterprising manufac- 

 turers, and be able to furnish a machine with the latest improvements. As a 

 result of one of their experiments, and through the skill of one of their 

 experts, they were able to dispense with about twenty pieces in their twine- 

 binder, which rendered it less liable to get out of repair, and more durable, 

 and lessened the cost materially, and made a rich harvest, not only for them, 

 but also for the inventor; and, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, if so 

 much effort is necessary for the production of a few of the implements of the 

 agriculturists, how much more essential is it that the farmer himself should 

 use every means which can be devised to increase his knowledge and chances 

 of success. 



It is true we have a commissioner of agriculture at Washington, with an 

 experimental farm, and many of the States have agricultural colleges, to the 

 most of which are attached experimental farms. Our own State boasts of one 

 of the very best, which under the management, and by the instruction of its 

 very competent President and Professors, is doing a great deal to advance the 

 agricultural interests of Michigan. They have awakened among the farmers 

 a thirst for more knowledge in their profession, and the intelligent farmer is 

 beginning to realize the necessity which exists for more extended and carefully 

 conducted experiments, and we realize, Mr. Chairman, that an experiment 

 which may have proved a grand success in the vicinity of Washington, or 

 even at Lansing, with us under different climate influences and a different 

 soil may prove a disastrous failure, and as a consequence we are deterred from 

 adopting the mode of culture suggested, or from propagating the seeds dis- 

 tributed. Now, if we could have experimental farms in different parts of the 

 country so located as to embrace every variety of soil and climate, and have 

 them under the supervision of scientific and practical men, with sufficient 

 means to carry the experiments to a successful issue, then every farmer in 

 a similar climate, and having a similar soil could safely put into practice 

 what was recommended, and would thus avoid the costly failures which often 

 follow his efforts to grow a new variety of seed. 



I presume almost every farmer present to-day, has noticed that for some 

 cause or other, for which I am unable to account, that, after a few years, a 



