March 22, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



219 



fication for this work as will inspire general confidence, no system 

 of administration can be successful, and competent men will not 

 accept a place of such responsibility and importance while their work 

 is always liable to interruption by the agencies of partisan politics. 

 The inadequacy and failure of the present system of control and 

 administration are inherent in the system itself, and are inseparable 

 from its relation to partisan change and caprice. The evil is not 

 to be remedied by merely changing the persons who administer a 

 system which is essentially vicious. 



If the people of the State of New York have enough regard for 

 their own interests to lead them to insist upon the adoption of a 

 system embodying the essential features of competent direction and 

 security from partisan interference, it will be safe and wise to ac- 

 quire the whole Adirondack region by purchase. If they have not 

 this perception of the importance of the object in view, and of the 

 means which are necessary for its accomplishment, the forests will 

 be left to their fate. The methods now employed are wholly use- 

 less and ineffective. 



THE UTILITY OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 

 STATIONS. 



The Hon. W. W. Wright, in a recent address on the past and 

 present work and future prospects of the Geneva station. New 

 York, took occasion to uphold the usefulness of such stations. 

 The establishment of an ' experiment station by the State near 

 Geneva within the last seven years challenged a great deal of 

 curiosity among farmers and others, and is of late creating more 

 and more of interest. To most people it was entirely new, noth- 

 ing of the kind being nearer than adjoining States ; and it may be 

 said to be a modern invention, but cannot be called a " Yankee 

 contrivance," for England, France, Germany, and other European 

 countries, led off in the creation of these establishments within the 

 present century, and had expended many millions of dollars in their 

 organization and maintenance before any of the American States 

 had established one. New York was among the last to avail itself 

 of these institutions, though its wealth, extent of territory, and 

 diversified agricultural interests, would naturally have made it the 

 first. In one sense, such a " station " is no " experiment." In its or- 

 ganization, management, and the results to be expected, we have only 

 to look to other Civilized countries, which have had an experience, 

 in some cases, of nearly forty years. When the Legislature of New 

 York passed the law for creating this station, the significant fact 

 was before us that neither in this country, nor in any other, had 

 these stations been established, except they had fully answered the 

 expectations of their projectors, and had been cherished and sus- 

 tained, because their benefits were so manifest that there was no 

 hesitation about continuing appropriations for their maintenance. 

 Agricultural colleges, and classes in universities in which scientific 

 farming was taught, were established or endowed in New York, 

 but they cannot be said to have been successful. The most exten- 

 sive of them was totally abandoned after a few years ; whereas 

 no experiment station has ever been discontinued, or diminished in 

 the scope of its work, or embarrassed in the want of funds, in this 

 country or Europe. On the contrary, in foreign countries they 

 have been multiplied to an enormous extent, and have steadily in- 

 creased on this side, though not so rapidly. There must be some 

 reason for the success of these stations, and the total or partial 

 failure of the colleges. The truth is, they are both schools, in 

 which there is little difference in the abilities and qualifications of 

 the teachers, but there is a vast disparity in the number and char- 

 acter of the students. In colleges we teach a few hundred boys, 

 only a small percentage of whom will become practical farmers ; 

 while the stations are endeavoring to teach the same science to a 

 whole community of men of all ages and conditions, engaged in the 

 business of agriculture, not alone through lectures in which the 

 relations of science and practical farming are explained, but 

 through the agricultural press, and pretty much all newspapers 

 now published and circulated in this country, daily, weekly, and 

 monthly; and these are supplemented by bulletins giving in detail 

 appropriate facts and statistics of the greatest interest to those 

 who desife to become better informed in a business which occupies 

 their constant thoughts, and in most cases the labor of their hands. 



Through these channels the stations reach the whole agricultural 

 community. Nobody is too illiterate to participate in this knowl- 

 edge, if he can read, or understand what others read to him. No- 

 body is too old to learn in this " school ; " and he soon becomes 

 almost unconsciously a teacher himself, for he imparts the knowl- 

 edge he has thus acquired to others, in farmers' clubs and neigh- 

 borhood gatherings, in the village tavern or post-office, at the 

 country firesides, in the fields and on the highways, in an unpre- 

 tentious but none the less effective and valuable way. He tests 

 the theories of the professors, lecturers, and newspaper-writers by 

 his invaluable practical knowledge and common sense, and often 

 detects the errors into which theorists are always liable to fall, and 

 thus renders valuable service to the true interests of agriculture. 

 It may happen in this way that men who have never learned to 

 read or write, but are capable of managing a farm well, may be- 

 come valuable teachers in a limited sphere. 



The first agricultural experiment station was established in 

 Germany in 1851, and since that time the number of stations has 

 steadily increased, until at present the number in the German 

 Empire alone is given as 1S4. Careful statistics, including nearly 

 every country of Europe, show that if New York should expend an 

 equal amount, proportioned to the area of our territory, we should 

 expend one million dollars annually. If, on the other hand, it were 

 proportioned to our population, it would require an annual ex- 

 penditure of three hundred thousand dollars before we should be 

 on a level with the countries of Europe. The first station, as has 

 been stated, was established in 1851 at Moeckern in Saxony; five 

 years after, there were 6 stations in existence ; five years later, 15 ; 

 in 1866, 30; and in 1871, 56; since which time they have been 

 even more rapidly increased. 



Those who may perhaps regard the work done at Geneva as 

 rather of scientific than practical value will be gratified to learn 

 what work was entered upon and continued at this first sta- 

 tion at Moeckern during the first six years of its existence. This 

 is given in a summary recently prepared, comprised under twenty- 

 six different heads. We select but a few of them : i. Feeding- 

 trials .with sheep to ascertain the best maintenance rations ; 2. 

 Feeding-trials with cows, showing effect of coleseed-cake on yield 

 of milk ; 3. Feeding-trials on fattening sheep ; 4. Observations on 

 . the yield of manure of cows and sheep, and the changes it suffers 

 by keeping; 5. Comparison of feeding-value of grass, hay, and 

 aftermath ; 6. Observations on milk-production in passing from 

 winter to summer feeding ; 7. Effect of lupines on milk-production ; 

 8. Composition and value as food of various kinds of distillery and 

 brewery waste; 9. Feeding-trials with cows, oxen, and calves, the 

 proper proportion of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food-ele- 

 ments for the three classes of animals, etc. 



THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 1 



The choice of the 22d of February for the founder's day of the 

 Johns Hopkins University will always be recognized as singularly 

 appropriate. Historic associations, at once local and national, de- 

 termined the choice. 



It is a fact not generally known that the Father of his Country, 

 before he became President of the United States, was the president 

 of a Virginia college. When Washington was chosen to the office 

 of chancellor of William and Mary College, succeeding the Bishop 

 of London in that educational honor, he assured the board of trus- 

 tees of his firm confidence " in their strenuous efforts for placing 

 the system of education on such a basis as will render it the most 

 beneficial to the State and the republic of letters, as well as to the 

 more extensive interests of humanity and religion." Washington 

 was always the friend of William and Mary College, his alma mater. 

 Without forgetting local institutions in Virginia, he advanced dur- 

 ing his eight years' presidency of the United States to what may 

 be called the national idea in university education. From that idea 

 Baltimore to-day can derive encouragement and inspiration. 



Washington's grand thought of a national university, based upon 

 individual endowment, may be found in many of his writings, but 



1 Abstract of an address by Professor Herbert B. Adams, Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, Feb. 22, 18S9. 



