Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/192

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180
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dent in agriculture, but Profs. Brewer and Johnson, by their experiments on fertilizers and kindred subjects, have returned the value of their endowment to the nation a hundred-fold already.

Take another item. The dairy products of New York in 1870 were over 100,000,000 pounds of butter, and over 20,000,000 pounds of cheese. Now, there has been quietly at work, in our Laboratory of Agricultural Chemistry at Cornell University, a young professor, Mr. George C. Caldwell. He has made little noise in the world. While Dr. McCosh was striking the stars with his lofty head, and his voice was shaking the Agricultural Colleges, this young man worked quietly on upon the chemistry of the dairy. Said Mr. L. B. Arnold, an authority you all recognize, "Prof. Caldwell's researches on the chemistry of the dairy are worth more to the State than your whole endowment. He has taught us to do such things in dairy matters and to increase dairy products as we never dreamed of doing." And to this, substantially, Mr. Arnold has lately sworn before the Commission of Investigation.

Take a few figures more from the same census. In 1870 the market-garden and orchard products of the State of New York amounted in value to close upon $12,000,000.

Can any one, then, gainsay the wisdom of our employing, as we do, a young naturalist of genius to devote his whole time to investigations regarding insects injurious to vegetation, and to giving lectures based upon these researches?

Take still other figures. The same census shows the value of farm implements in the State of New York to be over $45,000,000. In view of this we have investigations and lectures upon mechanics related to agriculture, and have obtained models and implements at home and abroad to illustrate this subject. Is not the mere pittance this requires well laid out?

I remember some years since seeing a paragraph going the rounds of the papers, stating that President White had sent from Europe to Cornell University an Oxford professor and a horse-doctor. The charge was true. The Oxford professor was Goldwin Smith; "the horse-doctor" was Prof. James Law, formerly of the Royal Veterinary College at London. Each one of these men, in his way, has been a blessing to the University and to the country. But look at a few more figures from the census. The number of horses in the State of New York is over 800,000; the number of neat-cattle exceeds 2,000,000. Prof. Law's lecture-room is one of the most attractive places I know, for animal physiology is a study worthy of any man, but, even if he never taught a student, in view of this vast interest is it not well worth while to provide such a man to investigate such a subject?

Take another branch. We have been fitting up an establishment for experiments in the best rotation of crops and in the feeding of cattle. A careful and resident professor has been called to carry on