6 N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 212 



under "field conditions" before making general recommendations. At the 

 best a year is lost by this process over a system by which the experiments could 

 at once be put on in the field. 



Another advantage of the field plats is that they would carry their lessons 

 into the midst of farmers more effectively than is at present possible, having an 

 even greater importance than ordinary demonstrations. Extension meetings 

 could readily be held at such plats, and the value of them thus quickly realized. 



The need of great care in drawing conclusions and the necessity for accurate, 

 scientific study in such work is illustrated by the experience this past year with 

 the soil rejuvenation plots which have been initiated at Durham. The general 

 plan of these calls for four quarter-acre plots, each divided into five sections for 

 different fertilizer treatment. The entire experiment is repeated on dupUcate 

 plots — an elaboration which would hardly be attempted in demonstrations, 

 but which is essential for primary conclusions. Furthermore, the experiment 

 is given an additional safeguard by repeating it on different land starting with 

 a new season. Such care showed itself justified by the results during the past 

 year. The plots exhibited marked variations. From one series alone the 

 conclusions that might have been drawn would have been erroneous when 

 viewed in the light of aU of them. It is only by taking them all into account 

 and studying the results carefully that the proper deductions may be made. 

 This is why it is most important that the original experiments, from which 

 extension demonstrations are later developed, should be conducted with 

 scientific care. 



In addition to the soil investigations other problems are greatly in need of 

 research attention. Principal among these is the matter of marketing methods. 

 A great deal of interest in the solution of this has already been aroused; and 

 progress in co-operative marketing has been made. It has been necessary to 

 make this progress, however, on the basis of conditions found elsewhere. The 

 problems peculiar to New Hampshire communities have never been attacked 

 by special investigation. Such questions as community production and dis- 

 tribution, the production of crops for a special market, the supplying of the 

 summer resort trade, and others deserve careful inquiry; and the Experiment 

 Station should be in a position to give fairly definite answers to them. 



With the development of the Extension Service, the Experiment Station is 

 finding it more and more important to direct its larger investigations to the 

 leading projects to which that Service is committed. The lime-legume proj- 

 ect, for example, has brought up the question of lime sources within the state. 

 The potato project has from the start been founded upon experimental research. 

 The Station also supplements regular extension projects with its fruit investi- 

 gations, studies of the root maggot, corn borer, nutrition research, etc. Al- 

 ready as a result of its work with white diarrhea the elimination of that disease 

 in the state is near. 



