Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 49]

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47

FARM EXPERIMENTS.

BY G. E . MORROW, L L . B , , PBOFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE,

While the leading object of the agricultural colleges of the country is expressly declared, by the law under which they received their main endowment, to be "to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," it is generally recognized that the trial of experiments related to agriculture is a highly important, although subordinate work. By no persons is the importance of this work more appreciated than it is by the professors of agriculture in these colleges, and by few persons are the difficulties in the way of receiving satisfactory results more clearly seen. Two or three of these difficulties may be briefly stated. First—The difficulty in controlling the conditions in field-feeding, and kindred experiments. The peculiarities of adjacent plats of soil, or of different animals, or of different seasons, often cause results, the publication of which serves only to confuse or mislead. To be reasonably certain of correct results, large numbers of experiments must be tried, or they must be continued for a long series of years. The yields of two plats of land, side by side, and with the same treatment and fertilization, sometimes vary much more than do the yields of two plats designed to show the effect of different culture or fertilization. Like results are found in experiments with animals. Thus, in one 'experiment tried by the writer, a pig of one breed gained 37 lbs. in a given time, while 'a pig of another breed gained 4 9 | lbs. in the same time—showing marked superiority for the second breed; but, in the same experiment, a pig of the second breed gained only 39 lbs., while one of the first breed gained 49J lbs.—showing almost equal superiority for the first breed. Comparing the two pigs of each breed, and the gain was almost exactly the same; showing, so far as this experiment went, that the breeds were equally valuable. In another experiment, a Devon steer gained 340 lbs., while a Shorthorn gained but 235 lbs.; but another Shorthorn gained 355 lbs., while a second Devon gained but 215 lbs.; and in each case the smallest gains were made under conditions which at first blush would be considered most favorable. A lot of cattle gained 1,815 lbs., in a given time; in a second period of equal length, and under the same conditions except as they were affected by the weather, the gain was only 525 lbs. . These illustrations might be many times multiplied, and much more striking ones given. Enough have been named to make clear one great difficulty, and to explain the reluctance of many who make experiments to gratify a common demand for immediate results. A second difficulty in the work at the agricultural colleges, is the lack of sufficient time and money at the disposal of those in charge of the work. A contrast may well illustrate this point.