Herbert John Webber

“ Some of the best of the select types have in our experiments produced twice the average yield of all the plants tested. As seed has been grown and tested from almost every hay-growing section of the world, we are safe in assuming that the thousands of plants which we have tested represent the average of what would be found in ordinary hay fields. New York is the first state in the Union in the number of acres of hay produced, and in total production ranks first, with over 6,000,000 tons having a farm valuation of about $70,000,000. ”

“ In 1900 there were approximately 15 million bearing apple trees in New York that produced over 24 million bushels of apples. Spraying for the codling moth is so universal and so effective in increasing the quantity and quality of marketable apples that if we were so conservative as to estimate an increased average income from each tree through spraying to be 25c, we should have a profit of more than $3,000,000 accruing to New York apple-growers each year through the control of this one insect as a result of the application of the arsenical sprays. ”

“ The average yield per acre in New York is 1.2 ton, which makes it rank forty-fourth among the states in the average production per acre. By the use of these new select strains the yield of hay would be increased at least one-fourth. The importance to the State of such an increase will be clearly apparent when the size of the crop is considered. ”

“ Of the total number of living former students who were not at that time in school and whose occupation could be learned, 71 per cent, were in some form of farm work, 20 per cent, were in some form of agricultural education work, or a total of 91 per cent, were either farming or pursuing some line of work directly allied to agriculture. ”

“ All of our agricultural colleges, particularly those connected with Universities, are influencing a very large percentage of their students to pursue practical agricultural work. Of the 206 graduates of the Illinois College of Agriculture, 113 are actually on farms and 82 in some other form of agricultural work ”

“ A considerable area of the State, including some of what is known as the "abandoned farm" land in the southern part, is just as well adapted and located so far as soil, climate and railroads are concerned, for the production of apples as are Niagara, Orleans, Monroe or Wayne Counties. The fact that the soils of the cheap hill lands are well adapted to potatoes has been brought out by a survey. ”

“ Experiments showing how dairying in New York may be improved. In 1873 the College of Agriculture owned a herd of ordinary cows, the average yield of which was about 3000 pounds of milk per cow per year. In this year, Professor I. P. Roberts purchased a pure-bred bull and began to breed and grade up the herd, retaining the best animals and constantly "weeding out" the less productive ones. ”

“ They furnish the results of hundreds of experiments more cheaply than the College can conduct one. They show the relative productiveness of the various types of soils, the efficiency of different rotation systems, the comparative production of different breeds of dairy cattle, the effect of topography on crop production, and many other relationships, not in one instance under one set of conditions but on hundreds of farms and under a great variety of conditions.
Soil surveys. The intelligent development of farm land must take into account the character of the soil and is determined by it. ”

“ The results of the work in determining the moisture content of butter will make it possible for butter-makers to produce a more uniform product which will bring a higher price on the market, and also to produce more butter from a given amount of cream, thus giving the butter-maker and the milk-producer an increased profit in two ways. ”

“ A large number of labor-saving and sanitary poultry appliances have been invented and given to the public, among which are indoor and outdoor feed-hoppers, a combination refrigerator crate for eggs and dressed poultry, watering devices, trap nest, etc. ”

“ These most successful farmers buy the most grain and raise their own stock. The amount of capital, machinery, and the number of horses, all have a direct relationship to profits. The surveys show why some farms are successful and why others are not. ”

“ Certainly it cannot be maintained that the New York State College of Agriculture educates away from the farm. Moreover, the tendency toward the farm is strongly increased. It is very doubtful whether any other type of professional or technical college could show a larger percentage of graduates and former students who are following the profession for which they prepared. ”

“ The life history and habits of the codling moth have been exhaustively investigated and a definite and effective method of control demonstrated whereby hundreds of thousands of dollars have been saved to the apple-growers of New York State. ”

“ It has been found in some herds that certain cows were not producing enough to pay for their feed, while other cows in the same herd were producing a return of over $50.00 in excess of the feed consumed. ”

“ That chickens may be reared in flocks of two hundred by the use of a gasoline-heated colony-house system, which reduces the cost of the original investment and decreases the labor in feeding and brooding seventy-five per cent. ”