May 21, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



245 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 

 Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS WAITER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK', N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles:— The Management of Our Experiment Stations. — The 



Proposed Speed-road in Central Park 245 



TheCorkOak. (Illustrated.) 246 



The Cedar of Mount Atlas //. Christ. 246 



New or Little Known Plants : — Berberis Sieboldii. (With figure.) C. S. S. 248 



Cultural Department :— Notes on Shrubs J. G. Jack. 248 



Notes on Hardy Plants F. H. Horsford. 250 



Hardy Plants for Cut Flowers.— V E. O. Orpet. 250 



Stove Plants W. H. Taplin. 252 



Orchid Notes F. Atkins, A. Dimmock. 252 



Fritillaria armsena M. Barker. 252 



Transplanting; W. H. Bull. 253 



Little Known Vegetables Professor E. S. Goff. 253 



Under the Roses' IV. G. 253 



Iris Gatesii Max Leichtlin. 253 



Recent Publications : — Forestry in North America. — III. .Sir Dietrich Brandis. 253 



Correspondence:— Grapes for Home Use E. Williams. 255 



Durability of Fence Posts B. 255 



Plant Problems IV. E.Hill. 255 



Recent Plant Portraits 255 



Notes 255 



Illustrations : — Berberis Sieboldii, Fig. 38 249 



The Cork Oak in Algeria 251 



The Management of our Experiment Stations. 



THE Agricultural Experiment Stations recently establish- 

 ed in the various states have been subjected to much 

 flippant criticism by persons who have no adequate idea of 

 their purposes and possible value. We recall one instance of 

 a most instructive feeding experiment at one of these stations 

 in which tests of certain food-rations were made to ascertain 

 their comparative efficacy in the production of milk. The 

 work in this case was in every way a suitable one for such 

 an institution. The facts established could be at once put 

 to practical use by dairymen, and could be made directly 

 profitable in their business. The tests were such as dairy- 

 men could not make for themselves, because they required 

 a technical knowledge and a habit of scientific accuracy in 

 observation and measurement to which ordinary farmers do 

 not pretend. Besides this the experiment required time and 

 money which the farmer could not afford to expend and an 

 equipment in the way of apparatus which he did not pos- 

 sess. Every one familiar with such subjects knows that 

 investigations of this sort have done much to improve the 

 dairy practice of the country and to secure a cheaper and 

 better product. And yet the bulletin setting forth the re- 

 sults of the experiment spoken of was ridiculed in more 

 than one of our great city dailies, the writers making them- 

 selves particularly merry over the fact that the cows treated 

 were referred to, as is usual in such cases, by their names. 

 Of course criticism like this is entirely empty, but it is an- 

 noying by its very silliness. It certainly is not pleasant 

 for men engaged in serious, honest and useful work to 

 find themselves mocked and jeered at and made the butt 

 of vulgar jokes. 



Quite as annoying, and almost as senseless, are the 

 strictures of persons who expect too much of the stations. 

 They complain because immediate answers are not given 

 to questions which demand years of patient study. One 

 man wonders why so much time is given to the investiga- 



tion of the Sweet Potato disease, when he is anxious to 

 know the exact effect of potash salts upon the sugar con- 

 tent of the grape. Another complains because all the new 

 varieties of fruits and vegetables are not subjected to com- 

 parative tests, while a third objects to such experiments as 

 worthless for other soils and climates than those of the 

 station farm, and urges the officers to confine themselves 

 to the investigation of principles which demand the over- 

 sight of men trained to scientific method, and leave minor 

 details of practice like the testing of strawberries and 

 tomatoes to individual growers, who are fully competent 

 to decide such matters for themselves. Here we approach 

 debatable ground, and the stations must be able to show 

 not only that they are prosecuting their inquiries on the 

 most approved methods, but that they have selected the 

 proper subjects for investigation. They must be able, too, 

 to state the principles which control this selection, and 

 give the reason why their chosen field of study is made 

 to include certain definite subjects, and why it excludes 

 every other subject. Every competent station officer will 

 welcome honest and kindly criticism which touches the 

 vital principles upon which these organizations must 

 stand or fall, and every such officer will admit that in 

 matters of mere administration they should always be 

 subject to closest scrutiny. 



The stations can afford to overlook captious criticism, 

 but they should be quick to profit by any warning or re- 

 proof from a friendly quarter, and the editorial article in 

 the April number of Agricultural Science should, therefore, 

 receive special consideration. The editor, who is Vice- 

 Director of the Experiment Station of the Indiana Agricul- 

 tural College, here charges or insinuates that, in many cases, 

 the law which requires the quarterly issue of bulletins is 

 not complied with ; that in some states the appropriation 

 for the station is expended in violation of the spirit and 

 letter of the law; that, in certain cases, the money intended 

 for the stations is largely expended upon the colleges; that 

 the Director of one or more stations is a mere figure-head; 

 that the work done in some stations is only scientific 

 in name, while in reality it is a bungling farce. Now, we 

 cannot identify the stations at "which these comments are 

 leveled, but we should be surprised if a Congressional in- 

 vestigation could not make out as strong a case against 

 many of them. Even in the states where the most intelli- 

 gent interest is taken in the stations it is very difficult to 

 secure men properly trained to do the work required. 

 There are not enough available men of this quality in the 

 country; and in states where little attention has been given 

 to the aid which can be rendered by science to horticulture 

 and to agriculture, it is not improbable that the station- 

 work has been entrusted to very incompetent hands. And, 

 no doubt, it is true that in some cases, where a good direc- 

 tor has been chosen, his choice of assistants has been 

 hampered by the interference of local statesmen, who are 

 too often eager to seize upon any position with a salary 

 for some dependent politician. Upon the whole, the won- 

 der is that so many of the stations are as good as they are. 



And yet they must be a great deal better than they are 

 if they are finally to escape the charge of misusing the 

 liberal appropriation at their disposal. In the colleges 

 and in the stations themselves a staff of young men 

 should be under constant training, and the excuse that it 

 is impossible to find men competent to do the work of the 

 stations ought not to be a valid one much longer. There 

 is an association made up of the officers of the agricultural 

 colleges and of the stations, and it would seem to be 

 worth while for this body to make a searching inquiry 

 into the condition of the institutions it represents. The 

 shortcomings of a few stations will discredit all. And it 

 should be remembered, too, that the stations will not sat- 

 isfy the reasonable demands of the people who are taxed 

 for their support if they simply refrain from violating law 

 and live up to the letter of their obligations. They must 

 prove themselves positive and efficient forces in horti- 

 cultural and agricultural progress. Unless they compel 



