GERMAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 107 



remain permanently united; for in time the control will reach such 

 proportions that the strength of one man will be insufficient to direct 

 both branches. Accordingly in the case of several German stations 

 the control work has already been separated from the scientific work, 

 forming an independent division. Examples of this are Gottingen, 

 Halle, and Moeckern, This course will probably be followed by most of 

 the experiment stations in the future. These divisions might be made 

 independent control stations, to which should fall only the examination 

 of agricultural supplies; but their connection with scientific agricul- 

 tural experiment stations has so many advantages that it is assuredly 

 to be preferred. When, for instance, the assistants in a control station 

 are required to make the same determinations year after year in a 

 mechanical manner, this monotonous work will tend unavoidably to 

 cripple their mental perception and acuteness, while the assistants con- 

 nected with a scientific experiment station have a variety of work and 

 can take an active part in the scientific promotion of agriculture. 

 Their field of observation thereby becomes broader and their fondness 

 for the work increases. 



The feeding .staffs control. — This is carried on similarly to the fertilizer 

 control and has met with the same success. But it required greater 

 efforts on the part of the agricultural experiment stations to get the trade 

 in feeding stuffs upon a proper basis. While the dealers and manufac- 

 turers of fertilizers were quick to offer a guaranty for the valuable con- 

 stituents of their goods (nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, etc.), this was 

 obtained for the concentrated feeding stuffs only after a long contest. 

 It must be acknowledged that not nearly all has been accomplished for 

 the trade in feeding stuffs that is to be desired. About six years ago 

 the agricultural experiment stations carried their point, requiring that 

 concentrated feeding stuffs rich in protein and fat, e. g., cotton-seed 

 meal, peanut meal, rape cake, and similar oil cakes, should be bought 

 and sold on a guarantied content of protein and fat, and that on 

 the basis of the analysis the farmer should receive an indemnity for 

 any deficiency in the percentage of these two constituents. In the case 

 of other feeding stuffs, as wheat bran and rye bran, it has not been 

 possible to secure such an arrangement and the trade in these impor- 

 tant feeding stuffs is at present attended with great uncertainty. In 

 general adulteration and contamination of feeding stuffs is much more 

 common than of commercial fertilizers. In the case of the latter, as men- 

 tioned above, the provisions are such as to insure comparative safety. 

 Along this line the experiment stations have a hard battle to fight with 

 the dealers, and at the present time the most difficult part of the control 

 work of the stations has to do with concentrated feeding stuffs rather 

 than with commercial fertilizers. That in the end the result will be sat- 

 isfactory is not to be doubted; but it will require all the energy of the 

 experiment stations in cooperation with the practical farmers to put 

 the matter on the proper basis. 



The seed control. — This branch of the control is comparatively new 



