WE DOUBT the expediency and the value of much of the testing of varieties at experiment stations. It is evident to anyone who has carefully observed the behavior of plants that variations in numberless conditions profoundly influence the character of horticultural varieties. Tests made ever so carefully at the station are often of little value for even adjacent regions. And even the same conditions of soil, culture and treatment often give dissimilar results in different years.

But it is not the inadequacy of variety tests which constitute their worst feature. As usually conducted, they are cheap and trivial in comparison with other work which may be done, and they belittle experimentation. The man who cannot see beyond the mere testing of varieties certainly lacks the mind and temper of an investigator. Such a man is simply a tester, not an experimenter. Merely testing varieties because they are put upon the market, like analyzing commercial fertilizers, is not true experiment. It is simply discussing what another has done, unmixing what another has mixed. It is investigation which follows rather than leads. The stations which lay most store upon this sort of work will every year find themselves where they were the year before. Their bulletins serve but an ephemeral use; they pass away as varieties pass away. They record no real progress.

There is plenty to be done. In fact, there is so much to do that all but the clear headed become confused if they catch any glimpse of the horizon. But we fear that many of our experimenters do not see beyond the garden fence, never get one inspiration from the white fields, ready for the harvest, which stretch away beyond all human ken. It is only now and then one looks from a hill-top. It is useless to attempt any catalogue of the things which need to be done. One who cannot discern them for himself will not be likely to profit by an enumeration of them. A man seldom rises beyond himself.

But varieties must be tested, they tell us. Yes; but make such tests a minor feature. Never let the impression get abroad that the stations are created for the purpose of watching scoundrels, or for doing work which must go down with the sun. It is said that the people demand it, but they do not demand that nothing else shall be done! And much of this demand, perhaps most of it, is but a reflex from the stations themselves.

The demand must be met, in a measure, however. The cheapest and best way to meet it is to cause varieties to be grown under commercial conditions by intelligent growers. Scatter them over the state and collect the reports. Or if the station cannot scatter the varieties, ask leading growers to report their experiences and the station can publish the results. Or let the horticulturist personally visit the representative growers, and write his own reports. In short, devise any method which shall broaden the observations, and at the same time leave the station freer to undertake better work.

But we are decidedly of the opinion that the horticultural and agricultural press can do and are doing this work better than the stations. At the present time, commercial growers are usually better testers, safer judges, than are the experimenters.

It may be said, in opposition to all this, that only the stations can secure unintroduced varieties, and test them before they are disseminated. But tests of unintroduced sorts are as unsatisfactory as others, and practically they amount to little. An originator or introducer sends his novelties to many stations and proclaims the fact to the world as an evidence of his honesty. He is sure to get a favorable sentence or two from some station, and the more stations the more replies. He publishes the endorsements and forgets denouncements. The station may publish an adverse report, but comparatively few growers see it, and if they do they still want to try it upon their soil "to see what it will do." The fact is that tests made at only one place in each state, and upon from one to six plants, possess little value. And it is also true that the introducer usually puts his variety upon the market the next year or the second year after it has been sent to the stations. If we were an originator, we should avail ourselves at once of the "station dodge " as the best means of advertising.

Of course the experimenter must know varieties to a greater or less extent. A man must know his letters before he begins to read. But he is not called upon to pass an opinion upon every one, to give it a definite mark which he will probably want to modify with every crop. It is only in species which he is studying in a wider spirit, with some ulterior motive, that he need to know all the tech-nique of varieties. The station should grow a general assortment of the most prominent fruits and vegetables, perhaps, for the benefit of those who visit the station, and to enable students to become familiar with them - for most of the stations are connected with colleges. And as often as the officer acquires definite information concerning any variety or set of varieties, let him send a note of it to the press. Or let some assistant or some specially competent student observe and compare the sorts and use the results where he pleases. The experimenter himself, if he is an experimenter, cannot afford to publish mere variety tests, unless they are a part of a more permanent investigation or of more general studies.