EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD: 



Vol. XIIL No. 8. 



An attempt to brin^ experimental work more closely home to the 

 German farmer and to teach him to help himself is described in a recent 

 article by Dr. T. Pfeifl'er, late of the University and Experiment Station 

 of Jena. Dr. Pfeitfer believes that the individual farmer must, to a 

 far greater extent than has been customary in the past, inform himself 

 regarding the fertilizer requirements of his soil and similar questions 

 by means of properly planned and conducted tield experiments; and 

 that individual experimenting furnishes the basis for very important 

 advancement in the practice of rational agriculture. The reason that 

 it is comparatively rare among German farmers is stated to l)e that 

 the difficulties attending the making of field experiments have been 

 much overestimated, and little has been done to counteract this impres- 

 sion. The farmers, lacking contidence in their ability to conduct 

 experiments properly and draw reliable deductions, need encourage- 

 ment and guidance, and to have their interest in the subject stimu- 

 lated. To this end Dr. Pfeiffer suggested offering a system of prizes 

 or premiums for the best conducted field experiments with fertilizers, 

 the idea being that these object lessons carried on by the farmers 

 themselves would broaden their understanding of the methods and 

 lead to a greater amount of individual experimentation. 



Dr. Pfeifl'er first presented his plan before the Association of German 

 Experiment Stations, at the meeting in 1898, in the form of a resolu- 

 tion expressing the approval of the scheme by the association. At 

 that meeting, and the meeting the following year, the advisabilit}'^ of 

 encouraging farmers to conduct fertilizer experiments, and of offering 

 premiums for careful work, was discussed at much length. Dr. 

 Pfeiffer urged that every carefully made experiment represented con- 

 sidera))le labor and expense, and that a pecuniary incentive to do 

 superior work should prove as helpful as the offering of prizes for 

 excellence in animal production. He explained that he had not met 

 with much success in securing the cooperation of farmers with the 

 Jena Station, although attempts had l^een made to elicit their aid in 

 various lines of experiment. His proposition, however, found very 

 little favor in the association. The difficulties and dangers of such 

 experiments and of the premium feature were emphasized by most of 



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