The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, one of the country's most respected horticultural research institutes, began operations in 1882 and has been part of Cornell University since 1923. More than 90 graduate students from throughout the world are doing their thesis research at the Station for master and doctorate degrees in the Cornell Graduate School. People at the Station work on more than 130 different projects.
Research is conducted in greenhouses, laboratories, growth chambers, and in the field.
In the immediate Geneva area, the Station maintains 700 acres of land for its field research program. The Station also has two outlying branch laboratories. One of these is at Fredonia near the Pennsylvania border and is in the heart of western New York's grape belt. The other laboratory is at Highland in the Hudson Valley where there is a major fruit and vegetable industry, especially apples and sweet corn. Modern-day agricultural research is highly complex.