Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-05-10
AGRICULTURAL.


"Il'D uI experiment stations w. %. AtWn
t"r, director contains an account Of the
organization and preliminary work Of the
office. vhich is 90 be conducted as q branch
Of the Department Of Agriculture, and a
brief history OF the experiment station
movement in this country. The bulletin
also contains statistics in relation to the
tabhshment. officers aud revenues Of the
stations iu each state. and the legislation Of
the United States iu reference TO them.
The historical account of agricultural eX
pertinent stations in the United States.
written for the bulletin 10y Mr. a. G.. True.
Pm D.. gives Yale college the credit for be
ing the first to officially recognize the claims
of agricultural science 1t was the case
here as ia Europe. that the first expert
mental work in agricultural science was
dome la connection with the higher institu-
tons of learning In 1916 John 2. Norton
was appointed professor of agricultural
chemistry aud vegetable and animal physl-
ology, and began his lectures in lS4'. In
1863. when the college came into possession
Of the Morrill, fund William II. Brewer was
appointed professor Of agriculture, and the
present director Of the Connecticut station,
Prof $ W johnson, was appointed profes-
SCR Of theoretical and agricultural chemis-
try.
Michigan organized an agricultural col
lege iu lsl1, and one or two others had been
started before the passage Of the Morrill,
land grant act in 1862 a little expert
mental work had been done at some Of
these colleges before the establishment Of
any regular experiment station. The first
step toward the establishment Of such a
station appears 10 have been taken by Profs.
johnson and Atwater in 1873, when, at
their suggestion, a permanent committee
was appointed, through the state board OF
of agriculture, to bring the matter 10 the
attention Of the public and the legislature.
1t is said that the majority Of farmers took
but little interest in the matter, and the
friends of the project failed TO get legisla
tive aid at the first trial Mr. Orange Judd
of the American Agrcuturist then offered
To- give $1,000 towards the undertaking, and
the trustees Of Wesleyan university at
Middletown gave the free use Of the Orange
lature next year unanimously passed an act
appropriating $500 per annum for two
years for the work and thus the first ag-
ricultural experiment station in America
was established in the year 1879. Prof.
Atwater was the first director At the end
Of two years the station was reorganized
and permanently located in New Haven.
organized as follows In 1876 at Berkeley,
in connection with the university of Cali
fornia 1871, at Chapel Hill, n. c., in con
nection with the state university the Cor
nell university experiment station in 1879
the New Jersey state station, connected
with Rutgers college, in 1880 New York,
Ohio, Tennessee and Massachusetts estab-
lished agricultural experiment stations in
lss3 Alabama and Wisconsin in 1888
Maine, Louisiana and Kentucky in 1885
Louisiana No and Vermont in 1886
These were all the stations established pre-
vious to the passage of the Hatch bill in
the spring Of 1887 Under this act of Con
gress which makes an annual appropria-
ton of >lj,uOO 70 each state, experiment
stations have been organized in all the
states In several states there is more than
one station, and in some there are several
branch stations under one management,
making in all total of 4G-or. counting
the branch stations separately, about 80.
For the support of these stations there is
appropriated from the United States treas
ury $3.50, 600 and SO 900 to the office of
experiment stations at Washington In
addition To this sum, the stations receive
from the states and other sources about
Sl4u. 600, making total of $725 900 for
their support during the current year
The bulletin concludes with the following
encouraging words
The experiment station enterprise is
now equipped for its great work From its
beginning II years ago, in the laboratory
of Connecticut college, it has grown out
to- the farthest limits Of our great land, has
enlisted the best colleges and universities
and the ablest investigators Of the country
and secured both state and national re
sources for its service. 1t has the favor
not only of leading minds in science and
education, but also of a great army of prac
teal farmers. to whom it has already
brought substantial benefits As the Sec
Rotary Of Agriculture has Justly said OF
all the scientific enterprises which the gov
eminent has undertaken, scarcely any 9th
er has impressed its value upon the people
and their representatives in the state and
national legislatures so speedily and so
strongly as this The rapid growth of an
enterprise for elevating agriculture by the
aid of science, its espousal by the United
States government, its development 10 its
present dimensions in the short period of IA
Years, and, finally, the favor with which it
Is received by the public at large are a
striking illustration of the appreciation on
the part of the American people of the wis
dom and the usefulness Of calling the high
est science to the aid of the arts and indus
tries of life. The present is an suspicious
time for this undertaking In the history
of no nation before has there been such a
thirst for knowledge on the part of thu
great masses of the people, such high and
Just appreciation of its value, and such
wide reaching, successful and popular pro
lects for self education no other nation has
So large body of farmers of high intelli
gence, and never before has the great az
ricultural public been so willing, and in
deed so anxious, to receive with respect and
use with intelligence the information which
science offers never before has science haC
So much to give The prospects, then, for
this, the largest scientific enterprise in be
half of agriculture that any government
f.l.. fill ,.F,