314 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



nor remember iill the things they read and hear, or who do not possess a library 

 of sufficient capacity to protect them from these pseudo-new ideas. 



The question arises, what is new, and in what ticld can (ho ngriculturisC and 

 horticulturist dig for things that will be new to the world? 



The answer to the first question is very dillicult to give, and when one goes 

 over the history of rural pursuits and notes liow many processes and systems 

 tliat chiini originality with recent writers are old and tried, he is almost ready 

 to exclaim, "There is no new thing under the sun." 



The answer to the second branch of this question 1 will indicate farther ou. 



In learning what has been done we fit ourselves for better work, for we can 

 profit by the mistakes of those who have entered the field in advance of us. 

 Several men moving across a marsh at intervals will not be liable to all sink in 

 the same hole. Those coming later will avoid the place where their predecessors 

 sunk through. So in exiierimentation accurate knowledge of former experi- 

 ments may save us a great deal of time and expense, and may aid us to strike 

 more quickly at decided results. 



IlEQUIKEMEKTS FOE, AND EESULTS OF JUDICIOUS EXPERIMENT. 



The fear that the requirements are such as to forbid ordinary persons from 

 experimenting, need not deter any one from work of this character. Many 

 simple, yet important experiments can be performed in connection with the 

 work of the farm and orchard, while the more elaborate ones must be under- 

 taken by those who are drilled for it, and who have the ability, time, and 

 money to expend. 



Here 1 wish to call your attention to the work of our Agricultural College. 

 It is the opinion of many that here is the ])lace of all others, where experi- 

 ments are to he performed npon all rural matters, and it seems strange to them 

 that in all these years there are not more decided results. This is not my own 

 opinion of its work. To be sure, experiments should be performed there, and 

 many can be carried on under more favorable circumstances and conditions 

 than at any other place in the State, but the leading work of the College is not 

 to exj)eriment, so much as to make experiments ; to train young men for agri- 

 culture and horticulture, in such a manner as to make them fitted to take 

 hold of questions of practical bearing npon their occupation, and work out 

 solutions. The College ought to answer for its students the question I asked 

 at the beginning, and the work of experimenting they should do after they go 

 out from there. 



When I was a teacher in the common district school, it was the custom for 

 all the old heads in the district to send in to the teacher all the tough problems 

 that had come down in the families for generations, and unless the poor peda- 

 gogue could give a quick and satisfactory solution, he was not considered worth 

 much, no matter how well he taught the school. No greater error could be 

 committed. 



So I think we must not expect our Agricultural College to work out tough 

 problems in agriculture for us, in a day, or a year, or a decade ; but we have a 

 right to expect that the young men who are there educated, are fitted to per- 

 form experiments and do work that shall be a great benefit to the State. Just 

 as the ciiaracter of an orchard can be judged by the quantity and quality of 

 the fruit stored for winter, so can the value of our farmers' college be meas- 

 ured by the fruit wiiicli those who go out from her can exhibit years after they 

 have left her Avails. 



