252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



becomes waste. It is the extra amount of steam you put on 

 that gives the speed to the train. It is just so with an ex- 

 periment station. You may give it just enough to overcome 

 friction, and to do things whicli the farmer can do himself 

 just as well, and in that case you ought not to expect much 

 of anything from it. You ought to give it enough additional 

 means to make it of benefit to aorriculture. 



O 



What I have said will show you what can be done by ex- 

 periment ; but we have got to destroy the idea that experi- 

 menting is a cheap process, that anybody can do it. I have 

 not learned yet, in three years, with all my facilities, how 

 to experiment. 



' Mr. Sedgwick. There is one experiment which the New 

 York Experiment Station has undertaken, which has paid 

 the farmers of this country a hundred times more than any 

 appropriation they could have made, and that is. Dr. Sturte- 

 vant's potato experiment. I was told by a prominent com- 

 mission man in New York that the effects of that experiment 

 on the crop of potatoes on Long Island had been not only to 

 increase the crop, but to make the potatoes of larger size 

 than ever had been raised before the experiment was made. 

 There is one simple thing, the knowledge of which has proba- 

 bly been worth to the farmers of this country thousands of 

 dollars. 



In your Massachusetts Experiment Station an experiment 

 has been begun by Prof. Goessmann which has already 

 proved to be of thousands of 'dollars benefit to fruit raisers, 

 and undoubtedly in the future will pay them very heavily. 

 I refer to his experiment in regard to peach yellows and the 

 proper application to prevent it. A prominent nurseryman 

 told me the other day that the application recommended by 

 Prof. Goessmann for the prevention of this disease was worth 

 everything to him. There are two simple facts which show 

 that we cannot appropriate money to better advantage than 

 by the establishment of these experiment stations and sus- 

 taining them well. 



Mr. MiLLiKEN. I want to ask Dr. Sturtevant if he has 

 tried any experiments or can give us any information in re- 

 gard to the white grul) which is committing such depreda- 

 tions on our farm crops, particularly corn, grass and pota- 



