910 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



well as for the dissemination of facts, not as spoken words, but as 

 truths visible in the growing crop of the farm. Instead of diminish- 

 ing in numbers in countries where the experiment stations are alreadj^ 

 numerous, they are continually increasing; for, as the discoveries of 

 an experiment station multiply, so the necessity for the expression of 

 such facts in the demonstration field on the farms throughout the 

 countr}^ becomes all the more obvious. The work already accom- 

 plished by them has in certain parts of our State almost revolutionized 

 farming, and no agricultural teacher could regard their discontinuance 

 with anything but the strongest regret." 



Experiment stations were formerly thought to be especially neces- 

 sary in old countries, where more intensive farming was practiced, and 

 where the conditions of the soil and the practice of stock raising made 

 experiments necessary to answer the man}' problems which were con- 

 stantly presenting themselves with the development of more rational 

 feeding and manuring. Subsequent developments have shown, how- 

 ever, that the experiment station is no less valuable for the new, unde- 

 veloped country, where there are no traditions to guide the farmer 

 and where agriculture itself is necessarily of a more experimental 

 character. The recognition of the necessity of experiment stations in 

 the different colonies of Australia is a demonstration of this, and the 

 form which the stations thus far esta])lished have taken is convincing- 

 evidence of the fact that in the evolution of the experiment stations 

 the system of no European country- can be taken as a model, but there 

 must be an adaptation of the stations to the conditions prevailing in 

 the country or State for which the} are primarily intended. 



The decision of Governor Hunt and Commissioner Elliot regarding 

 a site for the agricultural experiment station in Porto Rico has been 

 announced in favor of the Carmen estate, adjoining the town of Maj-u- 

 guez. This action is in accordance with the act of the insular legisla- 

 ture, which made the appropriation of $15,000 for the purchase of a 

 suitable site as a permanent location for the station. Advertisements 

 were made for offers of approximateh' 200 acres of land, and twent}'- 

 three responses were obtained. 



Most of the sites offered were visited and inspected by Messrs. 

 Frank D. Gardner, special agent in charge of the Porto Rico Station, 

 and Walter H. Evans, of this Office, who went to the island for that 

 purpose. A report was made to the proper officials, in which the 

 merits of the different tiacts were fully set forth, and acting upon the 

 recommendations made the above estate was selected. It adjoins the 

 town of Mayaguez, and embraces about 230 acres, each of the princi- 

 pal types of land being well represented. 



