684 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. No. 540. 



The tide to the limitless west rose and 

 fell, and we came to a pause. The technical 

 problems of the farmer called for solution. 

 His personal difficulties pressed for solution 

 directly on the farm. These problems are 

 of two categories: (1) to remove the special 

 disabilities (insects, fungi, weeds, animal 

 diseases), (2) to augment production (fer- 

 tilizers, soil studies, tillage, improving 

 plants and animals). Then was born the 

 experiment station (in 1887) : the idea is 

 to improve the farm ; it is investigational, 

 not educational. 



How special the purpose of the experi- 

 ment station act is, may be seen at once 

 from the purposes that it definitely men- 

 tions : 



That it shall be the object and duty of said 

 e^Jperiment stations to conduct original researches 

 or verify experiments on the physiology of plants 

 and animals; the diseases to which they are 

 severally subject, with the remedies for the same; 

 the chemical composition of useful plants at their 

 different stages of growth; the comparative ad- 

 vantages of rotative cropping as pursued under 

 a varying series of crops; the capacity of new 

 plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis 

 of soils and water; the chemical composition of 

 manures, natural or artificial, with experiments 

 designed to test their comparative effects on crops 

 of different kinds; the adaptation and value of 

 grasses and forage plants; the composition and 

 digestibility of the different kinds of food for 

 domestic animals; the scientific and economic 

 questions involved in the production of butter and 

 cheese; and such other researclies or experiments 

 bearing directly on the agricultural industry of 

 the United States as may in each case be deemed 

 advisable, having due regard to the varying con- 

 ditions and needs of the respective states or ter- 

 ritories. 



The experiment stations are holding to 

 these special fields with great faithfulness. 

 In a lot of three hundred and fourteen bul- 

 letins that came to my attention bearing 

 the date of 1903, the following rough classi- 

 fication of subjects was made : 



Bulletins, 1903. 



Insects, diseases of plants 63 or 20% 



Feeding and grazing 52 



Fertilizers 37 



Farm crops 33 



Fruits, orchards 28 



Dairy (milk and cheese) 23 



Diseases of animals 16 



Meteorology 15 



Garden vegetables 12 



Stigar 7 



Natural resources, irrigation .... 7 



Poultry 4 



Weeds 4 



Ornamental plants 4 



Seed germination 3 



Educational 3 



Forestry 2 



General advice, bees exhibitions, 



plant-breeding, etc 1 



314 



Some epochs are now passing— as the 

 fertilizer epoch based on agricultural chem- 

 istry. The larger question of self-sustain- 

 ing farm management is now pressing. 

 Three categories of technical farm sub- 

 jects are just now beginning to demand 

 much thought: (1) problems of feeding to 

 increase efficiency of farm animals; (2) 

 problems of breeding of animals and plants 

 for the same purpose; (3) problems of the 

 business organization of the farm, or the 

 development of a farm-plan. We are be- 

 ginning to apply research to large funda- 

 mental questions. The earlier subjects of 

 investigation in the agricultural experiment 

 stations were mostly the smaller and inci- 

 dental ones. Now the fundamental or 

 backbone crops and products are being in- 

 vestigated in their entirety — the corn crop, 

 the cotton crop, the grass crop, the milk 

 product, the beef product. The experi- 

 ment stations are originating a kind of con- 

 structive investigational method, and the 

 really great questions are ahead of us. 

 Large problems come last. 



We are now just coming to the large 

 question of adaptation of special areas to 



