220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTS AND 

 THE HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. 



[Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 8, 1901.] 



Very few "who have not given the subject intelligent 

 thought realize the difficulties to ])e overcome while making 

 an agricultural experiment that will secure results which 

 are not only correct, but which will be a step of progress in 

 agriculture, so easily understood that the farmer can apply 

 it to his own farm in a manner to secure the full benefit of it. 



In field experiments there are such variations in climate, 

 elevation of land and natural and artificial conditions of the 

 soil, that an experiment which might secure iuformatiou that 

 would be a step of progress when applied to one farm, would 

 cause a step backwards when applied to another farm. 



This fact confuses many who fail to understand why the 

 experiment station does not send out a multitude of facts, 

 clothed in language so simple that every one can understand 

 their full meaning, though they have never learned the mean- 

 ing of a single term used in describing plant food or plant 

 growth. 



The experiment station rarely gets the full credit it is en- 

 titled to. For example, information is sent out that Paris 

 green will kill insects when applied diluted with water, 

 giving the amount of poison to be mixed with a given 

 quantity of water. Some one, who thinks he knows quite 

 as much as the professors of the station, finding he can save 

 a few dollars by using the poison in a dry form, purchases a 

 shooter- and applies the Paris green in a dry form, and, to 

 make sure to kill all of the insects, he applies enough to kill 

 the leaves of the plants and hundreds of dollars' worth of 

 fruit. Or the station sends out a statement that arsenate of 

 lead will kill insects, and gives the exact formula for mixing, 



