Ldrodurtory Note to tlv Yearns Forage Experiments. 95 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE YEAR'S 

 FORAGE EXPERIMENTS. 



By the Director of Agriciiltnre. 



The output of an Agricultural Department, as of any 

 other department or institution, is controlled by the strength 

 of its staff, and the ability and energy of its directing officers. 

 In a highly specialized department, such as that of America, 

 much can be done, and much of a right may be expected. 

 With the numerous bureaus, and the various divisions or 

 offices in the several bureaus, there is hardly a line of study 

 with an agricultural bearing but what has at its service a 

 special investigator It is not to be wondered at then, that 

 such an important branch as that of Plant Industry should 

 have received marked attention in the States, and that the 

 special office of Agrostology should have been created to take 

 up the important question of grass and forage plant investi- 

 gations. In Victoria, on my arrival, there was no such office 

 to undertake the work ; there was no permanent station or 

 farm, where the work might have been carried out had the 

 office been in existence, nor was there anywhere, except in the 

 Chemical branch, the machinery available to carry out the 

 experiments on private farms in co-operation with the farmers. 

 It was the last reason, principally, which led me to avail 

 myself of that machinery, and to place the forage experiments 

 of last year in the hands of the head of the Chemical Branch, 

 more especially as it appeared to me necessary to carry out 

 such experiments in connection with fertilization investiga- 

 tions. The importance of forage plant investigations will be 

 denied by no one. The interests of both dairymen and graziers 

 are equally affected by the question. There was nothing that 

 so struck me, after my arrival in Victoria, as the endless 

 stretches of bare pastures, and the generally unsatisfactory 

 condition of the herds. In the northern areas it is question- 

 able whether much will ever be done in the introduction of 

 forage crops sufficiently resistant of the long dry summers to 

 prove of much value. But in the south it appeared to me 

 then, as it appears to me now, that a revolution might be 

 effected by a greater attention to the natural pastures, and the 



