EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 1. JULY, 1890. No. 6. 



EDITOTUAL XOTES. 



The exix'i-ieiice of tlie stations is already lirino-ino- out the need of 

 hotter nietliods of inquirv in various lines. Among these may be men- 

 tioned field experiments with fertilizers and in the cultivation of 

 crops; tests of varieties; the analysis of feeding stuffs; and experi- 

 ments in feeding. 



Whoever has had experience in field experiments and has taken the 

 pains to look through the mass of reports of such work that has ac- 

 cumulated during the past fifty yeai's in Europe, as well as in this 

 country, nuist he impressed with the smallness of the visible result in 

 proportion to the ex])enditure of labor, thought, and money. The 

 great difficulty is that the conditions, particularly of soil and weather, 

 are entirelv beyond not oidy the experimenter's control, but also his 

 means for measuring them : and what is still worse, inequalities of soil 

 which are hidden from his observation are often responsible for a 

 large ])art of the differences in yield, so that the results give entirely 

 wrong answers to the (juestions he is studying. While the importance 

 of duplication of ti'ials and of continuing tliem through a series of 

 years can not be too strongly insisted ui)on. it is also very desirabie 

 that investigations should be made with sjx'cial I'efeivnce to the im- 

 provement of the methods of experimenting. 



In experiments on the feeding of domestic animals, one chief source 

 of error is found in the differences in the individual animals experi- 

 jnented upon. Indeed, it is becoming a serious question as to how far 

 and under what circumstances a trial with a small numl)er of ani- 

 mals may be relied upon for any general conclnsicm. It is becoming 

 no less a question Avhether trials extending through short periods, a 

 few days or weeks, have the value that has been commonly assumed 

 for them. Again, such icndts as those lately reported by Professor 

 Babcock of the AVisconsin Station, and by others, u))on the variations 

 in the quantity and composition of the milk yielded by the same cow 

 with the same food, but und( r different surroundings or with different 



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