172 



who by neclect or careless methods might bring the work into disrepute instead 

 of advancing it. I think we have been extremely fortunate in securing as the 

 head of this department a young man who is full of enthusiasm in this line of 

 work, a young man who had been chosen by the voluntary organization known 

 as " The Agricultural v^tudent Union of Ohio " as its experimenter. 



Between this and the best farm there still lies a line of work which it seems 

 to us it will be wise to endeavor to carry out, and that is a line very similar to 

 that which Doctor Hopkins has inaugurated so successfully in Illinois, in which 

 a farm will not be purchased or leased as we have done in the case of our best 

 farms, but arrangements will simply be made with the owner of a tract of land 

 or of an orchard or of a flock or herd of cattle, sheep, or swine, to carry out. 

 under the direction of the station, either through its department of cooperative 

 experiments or through the agency of some of its other departments, certain spe- 

 cific lines of investigation. Our experience teaches us that if this work is to be 

 successfully done we must first find the man on whom we can rely to thoroughly 

 execute the i»lans which must be agreed upon between him and the particular 

 department of the station in which the work may fall. We nmst then as thor- 

 oughly as possible divorce that man from any i^ecuniary interest in the outcome 

 of 'the experiment. We have tried the other plan and have found it almost 

 invariably a failui'e. So long as the farmer feels that the value of the crop to 

 him is the main point at issue, so long will the experiment be neglected, and 

 therefore if it be a field on which we wish to start some of the lines of soil in- 

 vestigation which we have vuider way we shall lease that field outright, as 

 Doctor Hopkins. I understand, is doing, and we shall own the crop produced 

 upon the field. We will pay the man who has it in charge, or such agent as he 

 may designate, for the labor performed ; but the field for the time being will 

 belong, under lease, to the experiment station. If it be a herd of cattle or sheep 

 or swine we shall make, as nearly as possiblee, a similar arrangement. In fact, 

 we have just concluded an arrangement of that kind, by which a considerable 

 number of sheep are to be fed under our direction. We become responsible for 

 any extra feed that may Ite furnished and for any loss of thrift that may result 

 from the use of our methods of feeding. Of course this may ojien room some- 

 where for disagreement, but we hope to so adjust our agreement with the 

 owner that such openings may be closed in a mutually satisfactory manner. In 

 this way we hope to extend the work of the station into the various quarters of 

 tlie State. We hope to so extend it that within a few years we may have our 

 cooperators in every township and almost in every school district of Ohio, who 

 will be looking to the station for suggestions along the line of certain experi- 

 ments more or less simple and who will be carrying out these experiments under 

 our insi)ection and direction, and whose work will l)e to their neighbors a prac- 

 tical object lesson in that work. 



We realize one thing especially in this work, that if it is to succeed it must be 

 carried out under personal inspection on the part of the station, and therefore 

 the plan of organization contemplates the visiting of every experimenter, so 

 far as possible. l>y the chief of this department of cooperative experiments or 

 his assistant, or by the chief or his assistant of whatever department of the 

 station the work may be carried out under, these visits to be made as frequently 

 as may be necessary to keep itroper check of the work, to give proper encour- 

 agement to the experimenter, and to see tliat tlie results are not thrown away 

 by mismanagement at any time. 



I should say that we have been doing something along this line for a number 

 of years, so that the plan as I have outlined it is not a mere theoretical experi- 

 ment with us at this date. We have been doing work, for instance, in large com- 

 mercial orchards in Ohio for a good many years, and it has borne rich fruit in 



