[25] 

 INSTRUCTION, AND EXPERIMENTING. 



Two entirely distinct functions have generally been attributed to 

 Agricultural Colleges in this country, namely : Instruction in the prin 

 ciples and practice of Agriculture ; and simultaneously the performance 

 of agricultural experiments. There is not really any necessary connec 

 tion between the two functions; and the question arises whether they 

 can without detriment be conjoined. It is my opinion that in not a few 

 instances, the educational interests have suffered by being subordinated, 

 or even too strictly co-ordinated, to the experimental work ; and that 

 to this circumstance is owing some of the dissatisfaction with which the 

 results cf that education have occasionally met at the hands of the 

 agricultural public. 



Experimenting is, in general, the reverse of lucrative, unless con- | 

 ducted on a very limited scale, and with great judgment. An ezpert- I 

 mental larm cannot properly serve as a model to be followed, either as 

 to the kind of operations, or their lucrativeness. 



It is not, therefore, the best example or field of action for learner*?, 

 who are of necessity unable to make the proper allowances, and are too 

 apt to carry with them into their home practice, an unwholesome predi 

 lection for experimenting. The experimental portion of a College 

 farm can therefore serve for general instruction to a limited extent 

 only, and is rather an expensive institution ; nor, in very many case?, 

 can experiments be properly carried out, if hampered by the require 

 ments of instruction. 



EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 



These difficulties have been so well recognized, for some time past, i&quot;A\ 

 Germany, and the importance of performing the same experiments in 1 

 localities differing in soil, climate, etc., is so obvious : that experimental 

 stations, devoted exclusively to experiments of general and local inter 

 est, and quite disconnected from airy educational functions, have now 

 become numerous all over that country. Their operations are under 

 the same general control as the Agricultural Colleges themselves ; and 

 the latter frequently furnish from their advanced classes or graduate?, 

 competent men as directors and assistants. 



Some of the men most distinguished in agricultural science, occupy 

 positions at the head of such establishments. 



So well has the distinction between the educational and experimental 

 functions attributed by the act of Congress to our colleges, been 

 recognized, even in this country, that at the first general convention of I 



