EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. III. ISSUED JANUARY, 1892. No. 6. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



A general survey of tlie work reported by in vestig-ntors in the scienoe 

 and practice of agriculture in 1801 gives abundant reason for encour- 

 agement. In our own country the experiment stations have become 

 more firmly established and are increasing the regularity and thorough- 

 ness of their operations. In foreign lands researches in agriculture 

 are engaging the attention of an increasing number of scientists. New 

 stations have been established. Improved methods of experiment- 

 ing have been devised. No previous year has witnessed so general 

 an awakening of farmers to the need of better education in the theory 

 and practice of their art. Everywhere the idea that scientific princi- 

 ples can be successfully applied to the betterment of the industries of 

 life is rapidly spreading among the masses. Governments reflect tlie 

 growing influence of public opinion in this direction by a larger inter- 

 est in institutions by which the aid of science may be directly bronght 

 to bear on the welfare of the people. A notable instance of this in our 

 own country is presented in the transfer of the Weather Bureau to the 

 Department of Agriculture^ with a distinct purpose to enlarge its 

 usefulness to farmers and to enable it to give more attention to the 

 relations of meteorology to the growth of agricultural products. A 

 few illustrations of the lines in which investigation has rendered nota- 

 ble service to agriculture during the past year may serve to enforce 

 these general statements. 



In the interests of the diversification of agTiculture, so urgently 

 demanded in many of the States west of the Mississippi River, a number 

 of the stations, as well as this Department, have conducted experiments 

 to test the adaptability of their respective localities to the production 

 of sugar beets. Reports on this subject have been received during the 

 year fi'om stations in Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arkansas, and AVyoming. Tliese experiments 

 indicate that beets with high sugar content may be raised in many parts 

 of the region covered by these States. In the arid region particularly 



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