AGRICULTURAL p:XPERIMENT STATION. V 



It is not possible for the experiment station operating at one 

 point in the State, or even at a half dozen points, to prescribe set 

 methods or rules that can be successfully applied to the State as 

 a whole. The practice of agriculture is like the practice of medi- 

 cine — there are certain principles underlying the use of medicines 

 in all cases, and it is left to the judgment of the practitioner how 

 to make use of these principles, just as in farming there are cer- 

 tain principles underlying the growth of crops or of animals, or 

 production of any sort, and it is left to the farmer to use his judg- 

 ment in incorporating those principles into his practice. It is a 

 knowledge of principles and underlying facts of which we are in 

 great need, and the true work of the experiment station is to 

 discover these. 



To do more than this, except to a very limited extent, is to 

 encroach upon a province which can only be occupied by the 

 intelligence and good judgment of the farmer. For instance, it 

 would be unwise for the Experiment Station to formulate set rules 

 for the guidance of butter makers, whereas, it can no more surely 

 accomplish its true vrork than by discovering the effect of certain 

 methods of manipulating milk upon the final yield of butter ; 

 neither could the Station make up a ration for feeding milch 

 cows that would be economical at all times and in all places, but 

 it can do no better thing than show the effect upon growth and 

 milk of certain combinations of food ingredients, and then leave 

 it to the business management of the farmer to secure these 

 ingredients in the cheapest possible way. Of course in the mat- 

 ter of the use of insecticides, or in the treatment of the diseases 

 of plants and animals, definite methods may very properly be 

 advised, because here a successful method would be almost uni- 

 versally practicable. 



In accordance with these views the policy of the Maine Experi- 

 ment Station will be to deal largely with the discovery of those 

 facts and principles of importance to the whole State, without 

 attempting to incorporate the results of its experiments and 

 investigations into set methods. 



To be sure the Station is doing more or less farming and is 

 engaged in feeding and in dairying, but this is done only as a 

 means to an end, the end to be reached being a knowledge of 

 principles or facts. The practice followed in the Station farming 

 may, or may not be, the best one, and may, or may not be, of 

 general application, but it is supposed to be such practice as will 



