STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 225 



new, as you are aware, having been purchased but a year ago, 

 when the old farm was sold. The past year we have been occu- 

 pied in the erection of buildings, and getting the farm in order. 

 We hope to have things in shape by the time of your summer 

 meeting, to show at least a commencement of our work. I hope 

 you will not forget that by the acceptance of the invitation given 

 you last summer, the members of the Horticultural Society are to 

 be our guests at the farm at the time of your next Strawberry 

 meeting. We shall then, as now, and at all times be glad to re- 

 ceive any advice or suggestions you or auy one may have to offer 

 for the management of the farm, or in reference to any experi- 

 ments you desire to have made in agriculture or horticulture, and 

 especially we solicit seeds, cuttings, plants, trees, etc., for triaL 

 We will propagate every thing in this line found worthy, and dis- 

 tribute for the best interests of the people of this State." 



Prof. Porter offered samples of the new varieties of potatoes on 

 exhibition to any who might want them for trial. 



Mr. Harris. I commend most heartily this farm and the sug- 

 gestions of Prof. Porter to the members of this Society, As 

 horticulturists we can help the State University and Prof. Porter 

 in carrying out their plans in regard to it, and on the other hand 

 we can look to it for systematic woru: and careful records in all the 

 experiments in which we are interested. The farm consists of 

 260 acres. It has cost from $200 to $300 per acre, but by the rise 

 in the value of lands is now worth $500 per acre exclusive of im- 

 provements. The farm in many respects is one of the best any- 

 where; and when its buildings and equipments are completed, it 

 will be the best of its class in the country. 



Secretary Gibbs. I have always thought well of these experi- 

 menual farms, but have never so fully realized their importance and 

 usefulness to the public as I have since visiting the New York ex- 

 periment station at Geneva on my return from Philadelphia 

 last fall. Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, the director, gave me half a 

 day of his time in showing me around the farm and explaining the 

 experiments that were being carried on; and I came away fully 

 convinced that if our farmers would visit these experimental farms 

 and agricultural colleges, and get really acquainted with their 

 purposes and their practical workings, it would not be long 

 before their boys would be flocking there for a better educa- 

 tion in farming, as they do now to the classical colleges to learn to 

 be doctors and lawyers. 

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