Experimental Farms of Canada. 151 
cation of the results obtained, which is wholly committed 
to the attention of others more directly interested. 
In England, but little attention has been paid to such 
work on the part of Government, so that such as has been 
carried op has devolved upon private individuals. A most 
conspicuous case of this kind is to be found in Rothamsted, 
where since 1843 a most important series of investigations has 
been conducted by Sir James Lawes and Dr. J. H. Gilbert. 
But here again the aim is scientific, not practical, although 
in the extensive field experiments we find an admir- 
able combination of the two. The results obtained 
contain an elucidation of some of the most important 
laws. governing the growth and nutrition of plants, 
ranking high as scientific achievements. 
But because in Germany and England the aim is 
scientific and not practical, it cannot be said that these 
institutions fail to fulfil the objects for which they were 
established—promotion of the agricultural interests—and 
that agriculture suffers in consequence. Far fromit. For 
though the reduction of such results to practice may result 
in a slower rate of progress, yet is that progress of the 
most substantial character. 
In the United States, where the experiment stations are 
of recent origin, they have multiplied with great rapidity, 
until now every State of the Union possesses one or more. 
Because of their number, rapidity of development and 
extent of country, as well as the very diverse interests, 
agricultural, political and personal, to be satisfied, also 
owing to the want of properly trained officers to conduct 
the work, these institutions exhibit all grades of efficiency. 
In some, the scientific basis has been the leading idea from 
the outset, In others, the immediate reduction to practice 
of half-gathered facts, and thereby the cultivation of an 
unstable popularity with the farming community, has 
dominated all other considerations. In all these stations 
the scientific work is unduly hampered by the continual 
performance of mere routine work, such as is involved in . 
the analysis of fertilizers, the identification of plants, testing 
