8 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Houghton Farm. 
Purposes and Plans ! Experiments in Progress ; 
“Experimental Farms” vs. “Agricultural 
Experiments.” 
The term “Experimental Farms” and 
“ Agricultural Experiments ” are often used 
without a very definite meaning. A farm on 
which cabbages are grown to test their rela¬ 
tive earliness, or beets to see which is the 
greatest cropper, is not an Experimental Farm 
in the true or best meaning of the word ; it 
is a trial ground, and as such is measurably 
useful. The results may or may not be differ¬ 
ent on a different soil, in another location. 
When the American Agriculturist an¬ 
nounced that a portion of Houghton Farm 
would be devoted to agricultural experiments, 
something more was intended than a mere 
temporary trial ground to test a variety of 
grain, or somebody’s fertilizer, or hay-fork, 
or seed-drill. While these may come in in¬ 
cidentally and in themselves be useful, they 
can be done perhaps anywhere else as well. 
A “ farm experiment ” in its best sense, is one 
made to develop some fact or principle in 
agriculture of general application and utility, 
and the experiment is carried out to com¬ 
pletion without regard either to the time re¬ 
quired or to the immediate profit and loss. 
Take, for example, the noted field at Rotham- 
sted, which has been continuously cropped 
with wheat for 37 years, without the addition 
of a particle of fertilizer in any form. The ex¬ 
periment has been carried on, not with refer¬ 
ence to the bushels of wheat it would yield, 
but entirely for the lesson that yield, what¬ 
ever it might be, would teach. And it has 
certainly given to the whole world a rich 
crop of teachings in wheat culture. Similar 
experiments in other directions, of less dura¬ 
tion and completeness, have been and still 
are in progress there. The Houghton Farm 
enterprise has in view the development of 
principles that shall be of wide application, 
and beneficial to the whole country—some to 
be obtained at an early day, and others re¬ 
quiring more expenditure of time and money 
than would be given by experimenters who 
have not patience to go through with the 
slow but necessary details required to obtain 
complete demonstration of truth or error. 
For the information of new readers, it may 
1x5 explained that the farm referred to is in 
Mountainville, Orange County, N. Y., on the 
“short cut” branch of the Erie Railroad (L. E. 
& W. R. R.) running to Newburgh. The 
proprietor, Mr. Lawson Valentine, from the 
time it came into his possession, wished to 
make of the farm something more than a sum¬ 
mer residence—satisfied that it was capable 
of being so set to work as to make it service¬ 
able to agriculture in the manner already sug¬ 
gested above—providing the right man could 
be found to conduct the experiments. The 
choice finally fell upon Doctor Manly Miles, 
long connected, as Professor of Agriculture, 
with the Agricultural College of Michigan. 
After considerable thought and consulta¬ 
tion, it was decided that the first or leading 
field experiments most desirable and likely 
to be of the greatest benefit to our agri¬ 
culture, should have reference to our most 
important national cereal, Indian Com. A 
part of the experiments was planned to be 
somewhat similar to those prosecuted with 
such success by Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, of 
Sothamsted, Eng. One of the tests proposed 
is the relative value of barn-yard manure, 
and different artificial fertilizers used con¬ 
tinuously on the same plots of ground. 
The farm, under previous owners, having 
been greatly neglected, much labor was ex¬ 
pended in bringing it into suitable condition 
for experiments. For the Corn Experiments, 
two allotments of land have been prepared, 
one of 15 and the other of 16 plots. To secure 
equal conditions of moisture, a tile drain, 
three feet deep, has been laid lengthwise of 
each plot, the outlet being so arranged that 
the drainage water from each plot can be 
examined separately, if it is desired to deter¬ 
mine the waste of fertilizing materials in the 
drainage, or any other question as to the 
water. These drains were finished last year, 
and to test the present condition of the soil, 
before trying the experiments, a crop of corn 
was grown without any fertilizer, and the 
produce of each plot weighed. It is believed 
that the continuous growth of Indian corn 
upon the same plots, under the same exact 
conditions, 'will throw much light upon the 
problems involved in the successful culture 
of our great cereal. While thus a variety of 
treatment can be tested upon different plots, 
there will be opportunity for accurate com¬ 
parison in the different results observed. 
Though the leading field experiments will 
be with com, it is intended to have others 
going on at the same time. Experiments in 
the rotation of field crops have been com¬ 
menced in a series of plots devoted to that 
purpose, of which we shall have more to say 
at another time. 
As connected -with the Com Experiments, 
a number of feeding boxes have been con¬ 
structed primarily for determining the value 
of the manure made for the experiments, 
and also to allow testing of the value of feed¬ 
ing stuffs and methods of feeding. 
Aside from the field experiments, investi¬ 
gations are in progress in the production of 
Milk, and as soon as the building under way 
is completed, the manufacture of dairy 
products will be studied. What is enumer¬ 
ated here has reference to the experimental 
portions of the farm only. For the regular 
purposes of the farm, a number of well 
planned and substantial buildings have been 
erected, and the fields are being brought 
into shape for successful cultivation. With 
regard to some of the experiments outlined, 
the value of their results will increase with 
each consecutive year of their continuance. 
Other experiments reach results in a single 
season, and in the course of such investiga¬ 
tions, points of general interest are often un¬ 
expectedly developed. But whatever they 
may be, the readers of the American Agri¬ 
culturist will have the benefit of them as 
they will be made known through its 
columns, from time to time, as occasion 
offers. The aim has been to make thorough 
preparation, to move forward upon a well- 
digested plan, and this will explain why we 
have hitherto written so little concerning 
what has been in progress at Houghton Farm. 
Tan Bark. —“X.,” Cave Spring, Ga. 
“ Will a liberal application of Tan Bark on 
an exhausted stiff clay be of any benefit? 
and if so, how much would it be safe to ap¬ 
ply?”—The only effect that spent tan bark 
can have upon such a soil is a mechanical 
one, and if it can be had without cost it may 
be used. If we had the opportunity to ob¬ 
tain plenty of tan bark we would burn it 
and apply the ashes. These surely are good. 
Value of Apples as Food for Stock. 
A Farmers’ Clufc Talk About It® 
FROM TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ. 
“ Have you seen Tucker’s old cow lately ? 
inquired Seth Twiggs one morning in Septem¬ 
ber, as he took the pipe out of his mouth, and' 
set his foot on a log at my wood pile. “ Gotr 
the horriblest relax on her ever you seed, 
and he is mighty afeard she’s a goner.” 
“ What’s he been doing with her,” I asked. 
“ Nothing much, I guess—only feedin’ on 
her with apples, not quite ripe enough to 
make good cider.” 
“And how many apples in a day?” 
“ Wall, I do’no, but I guess he did not stop 
to measure ’em, but jest turned his cow right 
into the orchard, arter a storm, where they 
lay so thick you could not git round without 
stomping on ’em.” 
“ The only wonder is, she isn’t dead. The 
fool ought to know better,” I answered,. 
“ Waal, I do’no about that,” Seth began to« 
explain, as he readjusted his pipe. “ Ye see, 
there has been a deal said lately in the papers, 
and at the Farmer’s Club, about the use off 
apples for feeding stock, and I expect he 
wanted to try the experiment. Indeed, he 
said as much, that apples would be as good 
for his cow, as for anybody’s, and as they 
was mighty plenty this year, he’d try em.” 
“ And how does he like the experiment ? ” 
“ Mad as a March hare, you may depend 
says he has had enough of book-farming to- 
last him a year ; says the Farmer’s Club is a 
set of no-nothings and numb-skulls, from 
Tim Bunker down. Apples as cow-feed l 
You might jest as well feed a critter on soap 
bubbles. The old cow has been running 
down ever since he turned her into that 
orchard, has lost flesh, has shrunk milk, and! 
he believed if he had kept her in there she 
would have lost her life.” 
“He took her out of the orchard, did he?” 
“Yes he did, and I wonder how he had 
sense enough to do it. Guess he must have 
thought of saving the apples for cider.” 
Discussion at the Farmers’ Club, 
The abundant yield of apples this fall has 
led to the discussion of the best methods of 
utilizing them in the Farmers’ Club of Hook- 
ertown, and in other places. Connecticut 
has been famous for her fine apples from a. 
very early day, and some of the best apples- 
upon the list have originated upon our soil. 
In the even years we produce a large surplus- 
of apples beyond the utmost capacity of our 
local markets, and we are beginning to ex¬ 
port to Europe from Boston. Fair winter- 
apples have been selling at the depots at one ■ 
dollar a barrel, and even less. This does not 
leave much margin for profit. You see, the 
barrels, if new, cost about 30 cents a piece, 
and all the large orchards have to get some 
new barrels, especially if they send their 
fruit across the water. It costs 12 cents or 
more to pick them by hand, sort them and 
put them in barrels. The cartage to the de¬ 
pot is something, leaving but a small margin 
for profit, if we count the interest on the 
land anything. Some are used for drying in 
the evaporaters, and at home ; some for can¬ 
ning, and for jelly, but these do not take a 
very large portion of the crop this year.. 
This has led a good many of our thi nk ing 
