134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



President Chadbourne. It is not going to relieve farm- 

 ers from studying hard ; it is going to make them study 

 harder. 



Mr. . There is one point which has not been brought 



out. The gentleman who spoke of the increased quantity 

 of milk furnished by his cows by a change in their rations 

 said that while some of his animals doubled in their produc- 

 tion, there was no advance in some others. Now there is a 

 radical reason, I think, for that difference. I would like to 

 hear this matter debated in its broadest aspect, that we may 

 better understand it. 



Mr. HiLLMAN. I would inquire of President Chadbourne 

 what steps a farmer should take in order to derive benefit 

 from the experiment station. I think information as to the 

 method by which we are to reach such benefit might be very 

 valuable at this time, as farmers from different parts of the 

 State are collected here in such numbers. And I would say 

 in reference to the point which was raised just now, nine- 

 tenths of the cows did respond to the changed ration. It is 

 possible that the other tenth might have been out of condi- 

 tion, or something of that sort, which I did not have time to 

 observe. Very likely, if I had observed more carefully, I 

 would have found a 2:ood and sufficient reason for the fact 

 that they did not improve. 



President Chadbourne. On every farm that is well con- 

 ducted, and especially where the farmer is intelligent, and at 

 the same time has not had the advantage of a technical 

 or scientific education, many questions will arise that he 

 would be glad to have answered if he knew just where to 

 send the questions. That is the first thing which an experi- 

 ment station is appointed to do. It is to receive questions 

 from farmers all over the State, and if the knowledge is now 

 at hand, an answer will be sent back to them. If the 

 knowledge is not at hand, if that thing is not known, then 

 there is a point made, that there are experiments to be tried. 

 Here and there a question will arise on our farms that can- 

 not be answered by any experiments thus far tried. Now, 

 we are to go to work and try, in the best manner we can, 

 the experiments that will enable us to answer those questions. 

 That is the second step. Then oftentimes farmers have 



