174 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



QUESTIONS. 



Do experiment stations earn the money it costs to support themf 



Mr. Graham : It occurs to me that we would be very greatly at a Ios» 

 in the state of Michigan, without the experiment stations. I know there 

 is scarcely a week that goes by, but that there is some question in regard 

 to horticultural topics, as to which we are at a loss what to do; and the 

 questions are always sent to the experiment station, or the college, and 

 usually a satisfactory answer come« back. If we are in difficulty, there is 

 some way pointed out to us, and I should say that the stations earn their 

 money many times over. 



Mr. Alexander Hamilton: I would say about what Mr. Graham said,, 

 if I undertook to say anything. I have no way of telling, however. 

 Information has come to us some way, but we never took any particular 

 pains to learn where it came from; if it came from experiment stations, 

 we should surely say that they have earned their money, and I presume 

 that is the source of a great deal of it. I have usually asked the first 

 rnan I came to, that I thought knew, anything I wanted to find out, and I 

 never asked him how he came by the knowledge, and I myself have uevei* 

 taken the trouble to go or write to the experiment station. I have 

 usually found that Mr. Morrill or Mr. Hawley, or somebody else that I 

 could applj^ to, would give me information. Where they obtained their 

 information, I have never asked. 



Mr. Morrill : Possibly from the experiment station. 



Mr. A. J. Kinsley: I have been in the habit of receiving bulletins from 

 different stations. I get the Geneva bulletins regularly, and also those of 

 Michigan and Washington, and in my little experience on a fruit farm, if 

 I should obliterate all I have learned from the bulletins, I think I would 

 be a sorry-looking farmer and my farm would be sorry-looking too. 1 do 

 not think any of our practices, such as spraying, budding, and fighting 

 our insect enemies, are such as we would have had but for the bulletins. 

 I can hardly think of anj'thing but I have seen in some bulletin or some 

 horticultural publication. I suppose that one object of the experiment 

 stations is to be always on the lookout, and to gather in ideas, whereso- 

 ever they spring from, and test them, and, if found valuable, to put them 

 into a bulletin, and send them out among the farmers. I certainly think 

 that the experiment stations are very valuable to the fruitgrowers and 

 general farmers. Of the Geneva reports which I get, of course many are 

 of no value to me, those relating to stock matters, etc., but they certainly 

 are very valuable to the general New York farmer. I should vote that, 

 whatever they cost, it is money well spent. 



Mr. Merry: It looks to me as if Ave were each a little experiment sta- 

 tion in himself, and that if the tax is not too high we ought to ''chip in" 

 a little. The theory is all right. 



Prof. Taft: Regarding expenses, no one in the state pays a cent of tax 

 for the station. The college receives for this work, from the national 

 government, each year, |15,0()0, which come from the sale of public 

 lands in this or other states. It comes directly from the sale of 

 lands, and does not require any tax. The expense of the college is borne 



