EXPERIMENT STATION WORK 
an irony of fate in the shuffling of the hens, the wheat pen 
had the first time showed an advantage, the experimenter 
might have been satisfied and the waste of feeding high priced 
feed when a better and a cheaper is at hand, might have gone 
on indefinitely. 
Of bias in the interpretation of results all publications are 
more or less saturated. A reading of the Chapter on Incuba- 
tion will illustrate this. A common error of this kind is the 
omission of facts necessary to fully explain results. Items 
of costs are invariably omitted or minimized. Food cost alone 
is usually mentioned in figuring experimenting station poultry 
profits, which statement will undoubtedly cause a sad smile 
to creep over the face of many a “has-been” poultryman. 
The writer remembers an incident from his college days 
which illustrates the point in hand. Let it first be remarked 
that this was on the new lands of the trans-Missouri Country, 
where manure had no more commercial value than soil, and 
is freely given to those who will haul it away. 
The professor at the blackboard had been figuring up hand- 
some profits on a type of dairying towards which he was very 
partial. The figures showed a goodly profit, but the biggest 
expense item—that of labor—was omitted. One of the stu- 
dents held up his hand and inquired after the labor bill. 
“Oh,” said the suiiling professor, “The manure will pay for 
the labor.” ; 
When the class adjourned, the student remarked: “They 
say figures won’t lie, but a liar will figure.” 
_ The third way in which experiments are made worthless is 
by the introduction of factors other than the one being tested. 
This may be done by chance, and the conductor not realize 
the presence of the other factor, or the varying factors may 
be introduced intentionally under the belief that they are 
negligible. Of the first case an instance may be cited of the 
placing of two flocks in a house, one end of which is damper 
than the other, the accidental introduction into one flock of a 
contagious disease, or one flock being thrown off feed by an 
excessive feed of greens, etc., etc. These factors that influ- 
ence pens of birds greatly add to the error of the law of 
chance. In fact it amounts to the same thing on a larger 
scale. For this reason not only are many individuals, but 
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