310 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



that come by digging honestly and earnestly after ^vluit may come regardless of 

 any preconceptions. As the country grows older and there is a greater popula- 

 tion to support, these facts become of greater importance; lieiice the need of 

 advancement in this matter of experiment and recording honestly the results. 

 The question, then, of how to experiment assumes a more prominent j)osition, 

 as wo need the results to assist in increasing production. 



It may be remarked ''you arc making a straw man for the purpose of knock- 

 ing him over." This would be a natural remark ; indeed, after glancing over 

 the pages of any of our agricultural or horticultural publications of the day, 

 one ought not to think there is so much difliculty in experimenting when so 

 many are at it — and apparently with success — for in each number of the weekly 

 papers are there not several exhaustive articles detailing the results of experi- 

 ments? The world seems full of experiments, so it would seem foolish to try 

 to make them out as difficult things to manage. 



It is this fact that there arc experiments without end, and so little real pro- 

 gress as the result of it all, that gives emphasis to our leading interrogation. 

 The fact is tliat the larger portion of these so-called experiments are worth 

 nothing, — worse than this, their value is a minus quantit}^, because they arc 

 calculated to mislead. They are uearly all of very short duration, and these 

 are thrown upon the public, to be swallowed by open mouths, — yes, so very 

 wide-open that the eyes are shut against the theory that dangles to each one 

 and that goes down too. 



Glancing over the papers that have come to my table the past week, I find 

 three remedies for pear blight, — the result of careful experiment. For each is 

 claimed originality, perfectly satisfactory results, and each is recommended to 

 pear culturists everywhere as a discovery long sought and lliudly found. Two 

 of these startling disclosures are made after one year's trial, the other has had 

 double that time to prove its worth. All of them to my certain knowledge 

 have been in print before and were lost sight of because perfectly valueless. 



A man at Muskegon, in our State, a few years ago made a discovery, the 

 result of careful and thougiitful experiment one year, that salt was sure death 

 to cut-worms. He felt that that one experiment of sowing a sprinkling of salt 

 upon his garden (where there was no end to the numbers of cut-worms the year 

 previous) and noting the fact that this particular year iu)tliing was injured, was 

 worth thousands of dollars to the poor sufferers along our western siiore, that 

 had been eaten up by cut-worms. Everybody tried salt the next year ; strange 

 to say, there seemed to be no general and wide-spread freedom from cut-worm 

 ravages that was expected. Prof. Tracy, up at Old Mission, thought he would 

 see what was the matter; fo he caught some cut-worms and put them in the 

 salt barrel where they could have the full benefit of a generous supply. The 

 little '•varmints'' lived and burrowed in it, for some days, and some of them 

 finally died, as any one else would with notiiing to eat but condiments. 



A man out in Iowa discovered that coal tar smoke would effectually drive 

 away the curculio. If he had simply stated tiie facts, that by the use of coal 

 tar smoke he drove the curculio from his trees to otliers that wei'c not smoked, 

 he had done well, — but no, he had discovered by experiment a remedy for cur- 

 culio. Subsequent trials have shown that where all the trees are thus smoked 

 in a ueighborhood the curculio still works as much as ever; in other words, 

 accommodates himself to circumstances. 



Another experiment of a similar character wa-.; that of ])y. ilalfs with lime 

 to drive away the codling moth. 



