GARDEN EXPERIMENTS. 



205 



virtue of which wide variations in type are possible in a few gen- 

 erations of reproduction. We unconsciously perform experi- 

 ments if we cultivate the soil and need to have our eyes wide 

 open to reap the benefits of our work. Sometimes our individual 

 experience' will indicate a certain fact which the experience of 

 another may disprove. Right here we will refer to a statement 

 made to the writer in a letter received from Prof. L. G. Carpen- 

 ter, of the Colorado Experiment Station, who said : 



"Farmers are conservative, and they are not prepared to dis- 

 tinguish between those results which are probably true and those 

 which are established beyond question. Unfortunately the latter 

 class of results are few." 



It will suit our purpose to place in one class all who culti- 

 vate the soil, whether farmers, gardeners, horticulturists or flor- 



It will suit our purpose to place 

 in one class all who cultivate the 

 soil, whether farmers, gardeners, 

 pomologists or florists, and really 

 it seems to me that there is more 

 careful, intelligent, thoughtful work 

 entering into the experiments made 

 by those who cultivate little plots for 

 any purpose than by those who 

 handle 160 acres or upwards. ■ The 

 very eloquent gentleman who pre- 

 ceded me stated in his address be- 

 fore this body last year, that: 



"The possibilities of an acre of 

 ground are simply astounding. Who 

 has ever tried what he could do with t. t. Bacheiier. 



an acre of rich land? Work it and miracles will spring out of it." 



You will see that I am placing great importance upon my 

 subject, hoping that its significance may conceal the weakness of 

 the few statements following. As a kind of apology for the 

 very common matters I shall refer to from my experience I wish 

 to express the belief that in the life and work of the tiller of the 

 soil nothing worth doing or worth knowing can be called unim- 

 portant and no result obtained should be deemed insignificant. 

 A few words then with regard to my own' experiments. 



Last season we tested twenty-one varieties of tomatoes, set- 

 ting but few plants of most of the varieties, and pinning our faith 

 and hope as well as giving our labor to those sorts which we be- 

 lieved could be relied upon. Some 2,000 plants in all were set, the 



