10 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



members. Monthly meetings are provided for in all the communities, 

 as well as visits to the fields of demonstration and agricultural excur- 

 sions. The formation of a local society in each village is urged, the 

 governing board of the local society to be made up from delegates 

 from the different villages. Affiliation with other agricultural societies 

 is also urged, the representatives of these societies being admitted to 

 membership in the governing board. In this way the governing board 

 has a better view of the whole situation. To encourage the formation 

 of new societies a prize of 50 francs is offered each year for the first 

 society formed during the year. The work which has been done by the 

 local society of Ilerzele and affiliated societies maybe briefly described 

 as follows: 



In the first place statistics of the region were collected. It was 

 learned that in the district there were 9,043 hectares (22,340 acres) of 

 cultivated land, and about one-fourth of the whole district was pasture 

 land. The milch cows numbered 2,990, and the horses 744. The milk 

 industry was regarded as the most prosperous. It was further found 

 that the 9,043 hectares of land was divided into 0,328 farms, an aver- 

 age of 1.2 hectares (about 3 acres) to the farm. It will be seen that 

 the single farmer is helpless and that cooperation is essential. 



In view of the information furnished by the statistics the local 

 society undertook (1) to increase the profits of the farmers in the dif- 

 ferent lines of agriculture followed by carrying on experiments and by 

 other means, (2) to relieve the farmers of unnecessary expense in the 

 purchase of goods, (3) to devise plans for insurance, (4) to disseminate 

 information relating to agriculture, and (5) to arbitrate in case of mis- 

 understandings between members. 



Increase of profits. — To increase the profits it was necessary to learn 

 the resources of the region. Experiments were therefore carried on 

 on experimental plats and in the open field. Since the soils throughout 

 the region are very similar the latter were largely devoted to determin- 

 ing, under ordinary conditions of culture, the best kind and the quan- 

 tity of fertilizers to be used, and the order of rotation of crops. 

 Experiments were also made to learn the best varieties of plauts and 

 grains and the best methods of culture. The experiments were made 

 in duplicate, and have covered a period of three years. Those who 

 have undertaken them wen- small farmers who employ no laborers 

 but attend to all the details in person. The fact that they themselves 

 are the first to benefit from the. experiments gives them a special inter- 

 est in them. They are subject to inspection, and receive premiums 

 which are proportional to the pains they have taken to carry out the 

 instructions given. During the last seven years 500 pot culture experi- 

 ments have been made for the study of the soil. Preliminary variety 

 tests on 1,394 plats, and 2..'5S1 field experiments have also been made. 

 It will be seen that this represents an immense amount of work. 



Experiments with commercial fertilizers have yielded the district a 

 maximum profit of 500,000 francs ($100,000). In addition, the use of 



