PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 175 



in practically the same way, except tliat each year, or for the last two 

 years, there is an appropriation of varying amount made, to defray the 

 expenses of repairing and erecting buildings. The original law provides 

 that the college can not use any of the money, either the principal or 

 interest, for the erection or repair of buildings, so that this year there 

 were ten thousand dollars given for this purpose. As I recollect it, 

 the cost to tax-payers is something like two cents on, I think, every 

 thousand dollars' worth of property thej' pay taxes on. 



The President: I am glad that Mr. Merry touched upon this point, 

 because many people of the state of Michigan supposed that the state 

 was supporting these things by direct taxation; it is an excellent thing 

 to be brought out. 



Mr. Comings: It is hard to measure in dollars and cents the benefits 

 from some of these educational agencies which we have. The question 

 might come up whether the minister earns his salary. He doesn't earn 

 it in the same way a man who paints a fence or builds a house; but 

 if the experiment stations or the ministers or the newspapers are helping 

 to make better and more intelligent citizens, and better and more success- 

 ful farmers, then I would sav the monev is earned. I think we are too 

 much in the habit of estimating the success or failure of any undertaking 

 by measuring it by the standard of dollars and cents. There are otluH' 

 standards that are better and higher. We measure everything — sermons, 

 newspapers, and the lawyer's plea, by the almighty dollar; and I believe, 

 so far as I am able to judge of the work of the experiment stations, they 

 are doing a good work, and are training the farmers to become interested 

 in experimenting themselves, and teaching them how to try these experi- 

 ments carefully and accurately. Farmers are prone to jump at con- 

 clusions. They fertilize a certain way this year, and next year they do 

 the same thing, or ajjply it differently and get different results, and there 

 may be a dozen different causes producing the different results. I think 

 we work very carelessly and unintelligently, and the reading of bulletins 

 and the awakening of interest among farmers and their boys and girls, 

 in improved methods, is one of the educational agencies fostered by the 

 college and station, for the betterment of our condition. I do not think 

 it is possible to answer that question intelligently, because we do not 

 know the exact cost, nor the proportion of the crops saved or increased; 

 but, looking at it in a broader and higher sense, I believe they are more 

 than earning the money spent. I hope the time is coming when we shall 

 judge all things by a higher standard than one hundred cents to the 

 dollar. 



Prof. Slayton: I think that every farm, and especially every fruit 

 farm, should be an experiment station. I believe that we do not experi- 

 ment enough in the line spoken of. We read of what is called a good 

 thing, and in nine cases out of ten we practice the whole of it. For 

 instance, we use some super-phosphate. We plant a field of corn, and 

 we use the phosphate on the whole. If we have a good crop, it was all 

 the phosphate. We do not take into account at all what the season was, 

 or anything of that kind. If we have a poor cro]). the phosphate was of 

 no good. In trying any new thing. I think, we should omit certain parts. 

 For instance, in planting corn, I should plant alternate strips, with and 

 without the phosphate. I would cultivate differently, different parts of 



