The New Experiment Station

A bilí granting Federal aid to the states, for purposes of agricultural experimenta, passed congress last session and received the president's signature. The stations were not established, and very little has been heard of the matter since. The reason is that when the cali carne for money, one of the comptrollers in the treasury department ruled that the law nowhere directed him or gave him any authority to pay out money. There was a technical flaw in the wording of the bill. Notliing could be done about it until this session of congress. Early this session an amended bill passed the house, and last week it passed the senate, so we suppose there will be no further hitch. After a year's delay the experiment stations will betome a fact. The new law gives to each state 000 anr.ually for the establishment and maintenance of an experiment station. This is to be associated with the state Agricultural college, but no part of the appropriation can be used to defray college expenses. It must be used exclusively for thefurtherance of scientific Jnvestigation as related to agriculture. How will this money be expended? Undoubtedly an efFort will be made by struggling institutions in some of the gtates to use a part of it, at least, in ways clearly violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law ; but the proviso put into the bill by Senator Edmunds, making it necessary to bring it up each gession like an ordinary appropriation bilí, will exert a wholesome restraining influence. The live stations - those desiring to make genuine contributions to the science of agriculture - will also act as checks upon the others, because all must stand or fall together. Assuming then that the money will be expended as the law directs, we may inquire how are we to get the most out of it. The danger of frittering away the comparatively small appropriatiou by undertaking to establish and equip several distinct stations, is very considerable in some states, but may be passed over as not likely to affect Michigan. The experimental studies should touch live problems, and should be for the most part along Unes of inquiry too pensive for private enterprise. There are several distinct kinds of work which ought to be taken up. In many states, experimenta in chemistry and stock-breeding will, undoubtedly, absorb a large part of the appropriation, by reason both of their prestige and the personal feeling of the directora in charge of stations already at work nnder state auspices. Boards of directora, and the public generally, being more familiar with these two Unes of inquiry, will think first of them as worthy of special consideration. We may therefore neglect these subjects and coMider some newer lines of investigation, not less important but more likely to be overlooked. We ullude to the study of diseases of domestic animáis and of cultivated planta. Some excellent work on diseases of animáis han already been done in thia country under government direction, and hut very litile we believe has been accomplished by private enterprise. Indeed, so broad ia the field, and so riaid are the demanda on the investijüitor, not only in the way of time and money, but alau in the way of nary training, that it would seem the work could not be carried on to any extent without some such aid as these stations will provide. We need especially full knowledge of the communicable diseasea of animáis - to know not only what germs cause them, but to know under exactly what conditions these germs live outside the animal, so that we may protect our flocks, herds, and studs from infection, or stamp out a disease already started with a minimum loss of time and money. It is not too much to hope that by and by our veterinarians will have glanders, blind staggers, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, foot and mouth disease, swine plague, and other fatal animal diseases under reasonable control. What is true of diseases of animáis is true also of diseases of plants. The loss by rot in peaches, pluins, grapes, and potatoes ; by mildews on the vine ; by smut on the grains ; by blight on celery, strawberries, etc, aggregates every year more than the whole appropriation many times over. These also can probably in a measure be prevented, when we have learned the full life history of the fungi which cause them. If this cannot be done altogether by undiscovered fungicidas, tben by other means, only one of which need here be named, and that is the production of varieties less subject to attack. This is one important and Tery promising field for experiment, almost wholly untrod, what little knowledge we have being fragmentary and empirical. As in the case of animal diseases, the perplexities are such that, private munificence excluded, little progress can be made except by state or national aid. Observation alone will not answer here, but crucial experiment in field and laboratory, even at the expense of much time and money, must go hand in hand with it, if satisfactory results are to be obtained. That progress has been very slow in the past is partly due to this very fact that experimentation has not gone along with observation, owing to a lack of necessary facilities. Here then is a good place for Michigan to take hold and stick a stake, if she would be in the van.