EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 247 



tion here in Massachusetts. You probably do not know 

 much about what that station is doing, although they issue, 

 at frequent intervals, bulletins of their work, which arc pub- 

 lished in our weekly press. Now, I would like to have Dr. 

 Sturtcvant say a few words, if he will, in regard to the 

 value of the work of an experiment station, and what results 

 and l)enetits you may expect to derive from it if you give it 

 the support which it deserves. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I want to make a few remarks upon the 

 subject of experiment stations, on account of the importance 

 of them to agriculture, and I hope you will not consider me 

 as in any way boasting if I simply give you a few facts con- 

 cerning the New York Experiment Station. 



The farmers of the State of New York have had the good 

 fortune to have enough money appropriated by the legisla- 

 ture to justify the establishment of an experiment station. 

 We have a plant which cost $25,000 to begin with, and we 

 have now an appropriation of $20,000 a year for its mainten- 

 ance. We have a board of control who have had the wis- 

 dom not to hurry in the least; but who frankly say, " We 

 are willing to wait for results." Therefore, for the first 

 time in the history of agriculture, in this country at least, 

 we have had a station with sufficient funds for its mainten- 

 ance, and we have had no untoward public pressure requir- 

 ing us to do work simply for show ; so that we can go about 

 our work quietly, and wait until we can develop some facts 

 of interest and then bring them before the public. That is 

 a very important thing. 



Now, one of the greatest drawbacks to an experiment sta- 

 tion is this : — Agriculturists, and the people at large, com- 

 plain of the methods of research adopted, and the expense 

 of those methods and the object of them. There are a great 

 many fallacies in agriculture which we have not yet found 

 out, and it only requires a man to put his predictions to the 

 test by the scale, by the measure, by counting, by the math- 

 ematical test, to see how ignorant he is upon many things 

 with which he thinks he is fully acquainted. I suppose 

 there are a great many farmers who are willing to say 

 Avhether a fertilizer has been a benefit to one piece of their 

 land and not to another. I do not expect to be believed, 

 and yet I doubt if there is any man in this room — if so, 



