The Senator Wants To Know

New York, 1895

Experiment Station Officers Trying to Suppress Information.

The Legislature last year appropriated $8,000 for the use of the state experiment station at Geneva in making experiments on Long Island and devising ways and means to rid the farmers of bugs and insect pests.

Dr. Collier, who is at the head of the Geneva station, and who directs the work on Long Island, has made a flat-footed refusal to give the people of Long Island who are interested in this work any information as to the amount that has been expended out of the $8,000. This pigheaded policy was reported to Senator Childs, who speedily found a way to bring Dr. Collier to a sense of respect for the people whose servant he is. In the Senate on Wednesday Mr. Childs introduced the following resolution, and it was passed without opposition:

Resolved, That the director of the Agricultural Experiment Station (Dr. Collier), at Geneva, be and hereby is directed to furnish to the Finance committee of the Senate, on or before February 15, a itemized statement of all moneys expended in agricultural experiments and investigations on Long Island on account of the appropriations made last year for that purpose.

Dr. Collier is thought to be unfriendly to the work on Long Island, which interferes with the good times he enjoys at Geneva. The farmers have not reported any good results from his work yet. The work of the Geneva station might as well be done in Siberia for all the good it is to any farmer on Long Island.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.