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we are feeliii^r this at our Ohio station. We spent ton years there in learninR 

 how to experinnMit. We have spent twelve years in lirin^ing experimental work 

 into such shape as to give definite results. We are now feelins that the work 

 which is to-»lny most urgently tlemaniled of the Ohio station is that of demonstra- 

 tion throughout the State of the results which these twelve years' work have 

 brought forth. Just how to do that to the best advantage we are not detinitely 

 decided. We have, as part of our resources for investigation, several outlying 

 test farms. Thcsi' we have regarded in the light of. as I have just exi)ressed it. 

 additional re.s(»urces of investigation. Wc l<)i>k ujton them as al)solutely indis- 

 pensable to ci)rrc<t work. 



Considering n«»t only the lU'obJems relating to the maintenance of .soil fertil- 

 ity, but also those relating to varieties and their adaptation, and many other 

 (piestions of general interest throughout the State, we feel that if our work were 

 confined to the one locality where the main station happens to be established — 

 and most fortunately so, we think — the conclusion drawn from that work alone 

 would sometimes lie an altogether misleading l)asis on which to fonnulate gen- 

 eral advice to the farmers of our State. We therefore look upon the help which 

 we are getting from these outlying test farms as of vital importance, and with 

 that help, with the suggestions we get from it and the limitations wliich it evi- 

 dently puts upon the results which we are getting ;it the main station, we are 

 able to si)eak with far great«'r assurance that our ailvici' will be safe than we 

 could without this heli». These test farms serve in Imt a very limited way the 

 puriKJses of (h'monstration. We expect to make them serve that purpose to 

 some extent in the future, but it will be to a limited extent oidy that this will be 

 possible. It is but to a limited extent that our wttrk at the main station can 

 serve this purpose. By this I mean that comi»aratively few fanners of Ohio 

 can personally inspect the work, either at the main station or at either one of 

 these test farms. We feel that this work must be very greatly extended if it 

 Is to serve the purpose of convicting and converting the farmers of Ohio, as a 

 class, to the better methods. We can reach some of them through the printed 

 page. We can reach some of them through the spoken word, and we are en- 

 deavoring to enlist the c(H)i)eration of the farmers' institutes of the State in 

 this part of our work. Kut. after all. there are some things which must be seen 

 to be believed, or at least there are some things which can only fully impress 

 themselves upon the minds of many people after they have been seen. We have 

 started at the Ohio station a department of cooperative experiments, a special 

 department organized with the idea of enlisting the cooperation of the thinking 

 farmers in every quarter of the State in some of the simpler phases of the .sta- 

 tion work. We are endeavoring to prescribe for these farmers a few simple 

 experiments : First, in comparison of varieties ; next, in a few cultural methods, 

 perhaps, or in certain methods of treatment of seed or of plants for the control 

 of insects or fungus diseases. The outlook at present is very encouraging. 

 We have on our books to-day at least a thousand names of those who have 

 written to us and who are anxious to take up this work. Many of these are ex- 

 students of the college of agriculture of our State, young farmers who have gone 

 back to the farm and who are earnestly thinking over the problems which per- 

 tain to their work. We liope that each one of these will become to a certain 

 extent a demonstrator in his immediate neighl)orhood. We hope to extend the 

 work until we shall have several such men in every township in the State, and 

 we have somewhere near seventeen hundred townships. We are trying to go 

 slowly in the matter, to select from those who apply for work of this kind those 

 who give some evidence of earnestness and capacity and capability for the 

 work, as we realize that it would be very easy to get a large number 

 of names of persons whose interest would be but transient in this matter and 



