FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 529 



FARM EXPERIMENTS. 



J. G. Preston, before Ida County Farmers' Institute. 



The subject assigned me is a little out of the regular order of insti- 

 tute topics. The idea of experimental work has generally been looked 

 upon as simply a fad, or, at best, for some professor at our experiment 

 station to get his name before the public, or make a demonstration for 

 the benefit of the agricultural students. There never was such a fallacy 

 as this. The experimental work at the State College is of value to every 

 farmer in Iowa, even though he directly has no use for the college ex- 

 periments. In fact, nearly every improvement in our method of farming 

 and feeding can be traced, directly or indirectly, to the experimental 

 work of the station at Ames. 



But our subject is not experiment station work. You can get that in 

 detail in the Station Bulletin. What we want to say is in regard to 

 "Experimental Work on the Farm." 



Such a demonstration as was made at the Monona County Farmers' 

 Institute last November, by Mr. Easton, of Onawa, was of more value 

 to the farmers of Monona county than many experiments made at the 

 State station, because of soil and climatic conditions. 



We have for years believed that to make the work of our experi- 

 mental station of real, practical value to the farmers of Iowa the experi- 

 ments must be made on the farms by the farmer himself, or under his 

 supervision. This is why the recent cattle feeding experiments at the 

 "Cook Ranch" were watched with so much interest by the cattle feed- 

 ers of the State. 



In like manner Professor Holden and his corn lectures at the farm- 

 ers' institutes have awakened such an interest in corn growing as never 

 was known before in the history of agriculture in Iowa. 



Another step in advance is the movement recently inaugurated 

 by the Department of Agronomy in sending out their men to procure 

 samples of soils from the different sections of the State and analyze the 

 same. This you see is practical experimental work and will enable the 

 farmers to apply such fertilizers as will be of benefit to both soil and 

 crops. 



Again, the idea of getting farmers to keep tab on certain fields of 

 corn, noting the difference in yield between spring plowing and fall plow- 

 ing in the same field, this continued through a series of years will be of 

 great value, not only to the farmers who are doing the experimenting 

 but also to the cause of agriculture at large. 



As our topic, however, is "Farm Experiments" we shall have to 

 bring our discussion "nearer home," if we may use the expression. 



To what extent shall the ordinary farmer experiment with the dif- 



fent crops, or along horticultural and forestry lines? We shall give three 



reasons why the ordinary farmer should conduct "farm experiments to at 



least a limited extent. First: To know the proper treatment his soil re- 



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