702 EXPERIMENT STATIOX RECORD. 



({uestions should have helped to justify the stations in the com- 

 munities which they served and won for them an increasingly strong 

 following. Such activity was warranted from its experimental 

 character, and from the fact that the farmers usually could not 

 perform the service for themselves. Again, the stations ha\e found 

 it necessary to determine for their ow^n information and to prove to 

 the fai'mers the ])racticability of their findings and suggestions, 

 i. e., their business soundness or wisdom, and also to make clear the 

 economic fallacy of certain current practices and traditions. 



"Whether or not we think of these activities as being in the field 

 of economics, they border very closely upon it, and they have gone 

 a long way toward laying a foundation for economic studies and for 

 testing the truth of economic generalizations. As soon as we at- 

 tempt to ascertain the cost of an operation or a practice or a product 

 we are in the economic field, and the study of the factors which in- 

 fluence these considerations are but a step removed from it. 



The range and scope of this kind of activity at the stations is 

 very large. It has related to the cost of producing farm crops, 

 meat, wool, and eggs, the marketing of these products, market 

 grades, special requirements or preferences, losses in products dur- 

 ing transit or in preparing for the market, and expense of shipment. 

 It has likewise determined the effect of the use of fertilizers and of 

 purchased feeds on the efficiency of production and the attendant 

 cost of the product, and the relative profits from milk, cream, butter, 

 and cheese. It has dealt with the cost of clearing land or other- 

 wise reclaiming it, its relation to the returns, the cost of pumping 

 water for irrigation and the economics of handling water, and the 

 cost of light and powder from alcohol, kerosene and gasoline in its 

 relations to man's labor and environment. It has determined the 

 financial returns from spraying against insects and fungus dis- 

 eases, the relation of age to rate of gain in live stock as an economic 

 factor, financial returns and profits from different systems of farm- 

 ing, the factors which determine profits under various systems, and 

 the effect of various forms of organization upon financial returns. 



Not infrequently the experiment stations have followed the results 

 of their experimental work even to the point of developing a new 

 economic system. The dairy work furnishes some notable examples 

 of this. After showing by much study the importance of the fat 

 content of milk as measuring its value for making butter and cheese, 

 and providing a simple method for its determination, the stations 

 worked out the details of systems for paying for milk or adjusting 

 dividends at creameries and cheese factories on the basis of the 

 pounds of fat supplied by each patron, and showed its advantage 

 and justice. The effect upon the economic status of the dairy indus- 

 try has been revolutionary. 



