SUM?vIER MEETING AT OREGON. 117 



at least $200 for each county. While on these business matters I will 

 take the liberty of bringing another very important matter before you. 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 



Last week the President of the State Board of Agriculture, President 

 of the University, Master of the State Grange, President Evans and my- 

 self, made a visit to Columbia to look into our Experimental Station. We 

 had no horticulturist, entomologist or botanist. The whole matter was 

 taken from the Agricultural College and put into hands entirely distinct 

 from those who had had charge of the matter on the farm, and the ex- 

 periments were simply on corn platts and its value as food, etc. We 

 found no experiments being tested by them on the important fruits we 

 are so much interested in, or on the insects we are so much pestered 

 with, or the plants we know so little of. So it was our province to ask them 

 to give us a department in which each of these matters may be tested, so 

 that we may not be obliged to do all the work ourselves. This was what 

 we took to be the object of this appropriation of $15,000 per year by the 

 government. Used judiciously and in connection with the works done in 

 the horticultural department, you can easily see how very much might 

 be done. The pay, or at least part pay of each worker would be borne 

 by the state, and more of this money could be used for strictly experi- 

 mental work. The same may be said of entomology and botany. Now, 

 suppose it be impossible for them to pay all these m.atters, let them, for 

 instance, give $1,000 to horticulture ; $1,000 to entomology ; $1,000 to 

 botany. You see by this arrangement that some one who is competent 

 and is doing this work under other directions and other pay, would and 

 could devote their time and some of the means to the study and investi- 

 gation of certain lines of work, which they now find impo-sible. Those 

 who have charge of this class of investigation we know are enthusiasts in 

 their line, and if we can just give them so much money and tell them to 

 use it to their best advantage and the best interests of our state, you may 

 be sure that you will not be disappointed. What we want then at the 

 Experimental Station is : 



1. A good director; one who understands what is needed to be done 

 and how to do it ; one who is well posted in v/hat has been done, so as 

 not to go over the same ground again; one who knows how to practically 

 apply what scientific knowledge each may have in his line of work ; one 

 who will keep up every department of his work and have it well done. 



2. A good chemist who can do his work scientifically an 1 satisfac- 

 torily, and in such a way that it can be intelligently applied 



