DUTY OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 73 



pay roundly for the name, and for the pleasures which the farm 

 affords. 



Clearly, one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of scien- 

 tific agriculture has in time past been, that we have had no 

 adequate provision for raising up competent observers in this 

 industrial pursuit ; and secondly, that we had no permanent sys- 

 tem of experimenting, no places in different parts of the country 

 where men could act in unison, and with means to carry on ex- 

 periments from year to year, until reliable results were reached. 

 Now all this ought to be changed, since every State has the 

 means from Congress of establishing schools for the express 

 purpose of conducting experiments under the best possible con- 

 ditions, and of educating competent observers. 



Now, however, new obstacles arise. In the first place, there 

 is danger that the colleges will mistake their true work ; and in 

 the second place, that there will be on the part of the com- 

 munity an impatience to see results at once which can only be 

 reached as the fruit of years of patient labor. On the first of 

 these points, the mistakes of the colleges in the nature of their 

 work, it becomes us to speak with great caution. But we hold 

 some things to be self-evident in this matter. 



First, it is the duty of these colleges to increase the sum of 

 scientific knowledge in agriculture, and not merely to be re- 

 tailers of the imperfect materials already at hand. It is their 

 first business then, to enter upon a system of accurate experi- 

 ments not only to establish results for their respective States or 

 localities, but to do this in such concert with each other that 

 the same experiments may be repeated for a series of years in 

 each one of them, that we may learn what are the best con- 

 ditions of growth for every important plant as well as the dis- 

 turbing agencies in each locality. 



To do this work properly, the first requisite would seem to be 

 an experimental farm for each college. For it is on the farm 

 that the final work is to be done. We may reach certain results 

 in the laboratory, and some experiments in horticulture can be 

 carried on even in a city garden ; but those experiments in agri- 

 culture will alone be worthy of our confidence that have been 

 brought to the test of farm work for the production of bread 

 and meat. 



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