543 



desirable, an<I tbe station was moved to the city, located in the Agri- 

 cultural Institute of the university, and the farm is but little used. The 

 chief station of Bavaria is in the center of the city of Munich and con- 

 nected witii tlie Agricultural Department of the Koyal Polytechnic 

 Seliool. The station at Ida IMuiienhiitte, after the experience of a num- 

 ber of years, was tr.iusferred to the city of Breslau and united with 

 the university. Tije station at riohenlieini, of which Wolff has for many 

 .years been the <lirector, is connected with the well-known agricultural 

 school at that place, but does not make use of any considerable amount 

 of land for exi)erimental purposes. 



The experiment station of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert in England, of 

 whicjj Americans hear more than of any other Euro[)ean station, is 

 located in the country, and on the farm of Sir John Lawes, by whom it 

 is supported. But it has a laboratory, and the experimental work which 

 has been done outside the laboratory has been mostly in a few narrow 

 lines — wherein the wisdouj of its management is manifested — and the 

 whole amount of land under experiment is only a comparatively few 

 acres. 



Wl)ile there are numerous instances in which European stations have 

 been begun on farms in tlie country and afterwards removed to the cit.v, 

 generally to be brought into connection with a school or university, it 

 wouM be difticult to find a case in which the work has gravitated away 

 from the city and the school to the country and the farm. And it is 

 to be lemeinbered that the i)ol!cy of these stations is that of the 

 farmers, wiio see that it serves tlieir interests. Nearly every one of 

 the stations just cited is to a greater or less extent under the control 

 of the agrieultural societies and receives at least a part of its pecuniary 

 supiK)rt from them. 



The develoi)ineut of the station enterprise in this country, and espe- 

 cially in the newer States, does not admit of our rigidly following the 

 policy of Euroj^ean stations in respect to farm exi)eriments. In Euroi)e, 

 and to a somewhat less extent in the older regions of the United States, 

 the practical experience of intelligent agriculture has solved many of 

 the more general problems. In a large part of our country, however, 

 this experience is lacking, and the exi)erimeut stations must help to 

 sujjply it. The farm thus becomes a more important adjunct to the 

 station. But our stations are wise in extending their field experiments 

 beyond the station farms, and in i)lanning iiivestig:itions which can be 

 carried out under station direction b^^ competent men on their own farms 

 indifferent regions. Experience, however, isenfbrcingtheimportance of 

 providing that the co-operative experiments be under direct and adequate 

 supervision by trained experimenters. 



While the peculiar and varied conditions under which our stations 

 are working admit of a wider use of farm experiments tUan is deemed 

 advisable in Europe, we must not forget the fact, which experience 

 teaches and ou which authorities on agricultural investigation at home 



