Vol. LV. No. 2448. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 26, 1896. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE GENEVA EXPERIMENT STATION. 
A NEW LEASE OF LIFE. 
Some Plans for Future Work. 
[editorial correspondence.J 
The New York State Experiment Station, at Geneva, 
N. Y., has, probably, the best “ plant ” of any sim¬ 
ilar institution in the country. Situated in the heart 
of a magnificent fruit country, and within easy reach 
of the great farms of western New York, where 
stock, grain and potato farmers abound, the Geneva 
Station ought to become a power in New York State 
agriculture. We believe that Geneva is now entering 
upon a new era of prosperity and value. Director 
W. H. Jordan comes from a successful directorship of 
the Maine Station, and is maturing plans for work in 
his new field. On a recent visit to the Station, I had 
the curing room so as to give exactly the right con¬ 
ditions. This is one of the things that Prof. Jordan 
will take up. His plan is to arrange a dairy building, 
containing a cheese room in which hundreds of exact 
experiments may be conducted so that the complete 
process of cheese curing may be carefully studied. 
There was a time when the chemistry of cream-ripen¬ 
ing was but little understood. Scientific men studied 
and experimented until they were able to suggest 
simple rules which enabled dairymen to control this 
ripening with certainty. Prof. Jordan will endeavor 
to learn how to suggest similar rules to govern the 
curing of cheese. It is easy to see how this will 
benefit the cheese makers and cheese consumers of 
the country. 
Those who have studied the science of feeding cat¬ 
tle, know that there is a difference of opinion among 
old-process linseed meal will make a soft, salvy but¬ 
ter. It is equally well understood that foods like 
corn meal or cotton-seed meal will make a firm, hard 
butter. Why and how is this ? Does the different 
sort of oil or fat affect the size, shape or character of 
the butter globule, or what makes the difference ? 
Any one may see that it would be an advantage to 
know more about these things. The only way for 
us to learn is to have some patient scientist dig out 
the facts by repeated experiments, and put them into 
soluble language that we may all understand. At 
the Maine Station, Prof. Jordan conducted a very 
valuable experiment with steers to see how the fat 
that is stored up in the body is changed or modified 
by changes in the food. These questions of fat and 
feeding will be carried on with the greatest care, and 
during the experiments, The R. N.-Y. hopes to 
A FAMILY AFFAIR ON A SMALL FLORIDA ORANGE FARM. Fig. 278. See Page 818. 
an opportunity of talking with him about some of 
these plans, and I am sure that The R. N.-Y. readers 
will be interested to know something about the 
scientific work that is contemplated at Geneva. 
“ I want to get down to fundamentals ,” said Prof. 
Jordan. “I want to go to the core of things. I would 
prefer to take a few important topics, and put our 
whole force at work upon them, rather than to scatter 
our efforts over a wide field, and not reach definite 
conclusions.” 
That is, evidently, to be the purpose of the scien¬ 
tific work done at Geneva. For example, there is, 
probably, less actually known about the chemical 
changes that take place in the curing of cheese than 
of any other ordinary operations of the dairy. Butter¬ 
making has been reduced almost to an exact science, 
but cheesemakers are liable to lose hundreds of dol¬ 
lars every season because they do not yet understand 
how to control the temperature, moisture, etc., of 
authorities regarding several important points. For 
example, we are told that a “balanced ration” must 
contain both “ fat-formers” and pure fat or oil. It 
does not appear to be definitely known whether a 
cow has the ability to change the “ fat-formers” into 
true butter fat—or, at least, to what extent she can 
do so. To test this question, Prof. Jordan intends to 
feed a cow on food from which all the pure fat has 
been taken. This will give her only the muscle- 
makers and fat-formers, and it will, indeed, be an in¬ 
teresting thing to see what the cow is able to do with 
such food. The results will be watched with great 
interest by all cattle feeders who attempt to feed by 
scientific rules, because we may find that, in some 
situations where oily or fat foods are expensive, we 
may be able to make up cheaper rations without them. 
Another thing that is not well understood is why 
certain foods affect the consistency of butter fat as 
they do, It is pretty well understood that too much 
visit the station and tell just what is being done. 
While at the Maine Station, Prof. Jordan undertook 
to show the feeding capacity of different plants by 
testing their ability to utilize the different forms of 
phosphoric acid. We had an account of this experi¬ 
ment on page 685. It was shown that such plants as 
clover, buckwheat and turnips can make use of the 
crude and raw phosphates, while potatoes and other 
crops must have the more soluble forms. Prof. Jordan 
will continue this experiment at Geneva with other 
crops than those used in Maine. There appears to be 
almost as much difference between the “ feeding 
powers ” of clover and buckwheat on the one hand, 
and potatoes or tomatoes on the other, as there is be¬ 
tween goats and Jersey calves. The chances are that 
these experiments will show us how to use the cheap 
and crude phosphates, so as to permit certain crops 
to dissolve them for the use of others. 
This will give an idea of the work contemplated at 
