212 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



in this direction." But the crowning feature of such work is the demon- 

 stration of its practical bearing and its application in farm practice. 

 The deductions from these investigations must be tested in actual 

 practice. This work naturally falls to the agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions and has grown to be a very important function. Its importance 

 was for a long time not fully appreciated by the agricultural experi- 

 ment stations in Germany. This was unavoidable, as the scientific 

 principles were far from being demonstrated and absorbed the atten- 

 tion of the stations. But as this has now been accomplished to a con- 

 siderable degree in most lines, the stations are taking up the highly 

 important task of testing the progress of science as to its practical 

 bearing, and of applying in practice the observations which stand 

 these crucial practical tests. From a practical standpoint, this branch 

 of the work is at present at least fully as important as the scientific 

 research. 



As long as the condition of agriculture in Germany was good, the 

 experiment stations had no difficulty in finding practical farmers who 

 would cooperate with them in such practical experiments. But in the 

 present depressed condition it can not be expected that individual 

 farmers will make any considerable sacrifice for the general good, such 

 as would be involved in conducting extensive field experiments on the 

 practical application of scientific teachings. As long as the condition 

 of agriculture was good it was not necessary that the experiments 

 carried on by practical farmers should be such as always to give entirely 

 practical results, and in fact under such conditions the farmers could 

 be encouraged to conduct experiments which it was known would be of 

 more theoretical than practical interest. The writer has at times not 

 hesitated to organize cooperative field experiments in his district the 

 cost of which would amount to upward of $ 25,000 annually, and this 

 expense was willingly borne by the farmers ; but in the present depressed 

 condition of agriculture the farmers can not be expected to carry on 

 experiments which are not likely to be of direct benefit to practical 

 agriculture. 



On this account it is extremely desirable to submit problems for field 

 experiments to a selective process, in order to prevent unnecessary 

 expense to the farmers. For this purpose it has been fouud necessary 

 for the experiment stations to provide their own experiment fields for 

 investigations in manuring and in the production and management of 

 barnyard manure. On these fields the problems which suggest them- 

 selves for cooperative experiments with farmers can be sifted and a 

 selection made of topics to be studied in such experiments. 



The experiment stations must be provided with sufficient funds to 

 enable them to conduct field experiments on the important questions of 

 the day without regard to the expense or to the profitable returns. A 

 large number of the experiment stations already have such experimental 

 fields, and it will be necessary to provide these for every experiment 



