The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1892-02-05
AGf:ICILTIRAL COLLEGES.
something Of their Work. and of
the south Dakota College
i'm Particular.

rectly to develop scientific agriculture
and indirectly tc assist in agricultural
instruction and disseminate agricultural
knowledge to the farming districts Of the
state through the publication Of its bull
letins.
The organization of our station dates
back to 1887, WheE our state was yet a
territory and soon after the Act of Con-
gress authorizing the establishment of
stations ia the different states and terri
tories and providing for their support
had been passed. At this time there were
only a few experiment stations in opera
ton in the United States. The first was
established IN 1870 and i'll 1880 there
were but four. 1t would have been many
years before our new state could have
started this work OF Investigation on her
own account. We Of the college, as well
as the people Of the state III general rat
irally feel that the annual appropriation
hy the federal government OF $4,000 for
the station and $1,000 winch will ulti-
mately reach $4,000 for the college was
Godsend TO our institution to help it
through the seasons Of short crops and
low prices.
Since national aid was offered TO. their
support, stations have been organized in
every state Of the unlon and also in most
OF the territories. Some few states lave
two stations and a few OF them three
I There are at present in the United States
41 stations besides eleven branch stations
Dakota was the first among the terri
tories u make a start ia this direction,
which shows the enterprise and inelli-
gence Of her inhabitants as always being
/ on tie alert to take advantage of any op
portltniy offered for Improvement or ad-
vancement IN her principal pursuit., agri-
culture Nearly 400 specialists, careful
investigators, are now ia the employment
Of these stations and in time much ac
curae, valuable information must result.
Today the aggregate mailing lists of
these stations contain at least 100000
names, of which perhaps so per cent. are
farmers. The rest Of the publications
go to scientific lnyesll1 1ators. libraries,
societies and newspapers. The bulletins
reach directly only small per cent. OF
the farmers Of the country taken as 4
whole, but when Wetake into account the
extracts made from them by the news
papers and agricultural press one may
readily understand that the results OF the
experiments have very wide and tar
reaching circulation. The government
appropriation this year for the various
stations Is S6OO,GC and several states
have added to this sufficiently to make
the whole amount for the year $50, ,0GO.
Director Atwater oi the Office Of LAperl-
ment Stations for the United States De-
partment Of Agriculture says This may
seem like a large sum TO expend annual
ly tor agricultural experiments, bul it is
less than IL cents for eacE OF the ,oOO,-
600 farm workers OF the country; less
than 2l2 cents for each OF the 3O,uCO,0GO
of our population directly dependent
upon agriculture Tor their support and
less than | "a cents Tor each of the CO.
OCO,OUO Of our people WHO consume the
products or our farms. The farming
lands, farm implements and live stock OF
the country are estimated worth S12,UGO,-
OOO0GD. The experiment stations cost
us, then, about s16.2o a year Tor every
| million dollars invested IN agriculture;
or, reckoning the annual value of the
products OF our farms as S2,2OO.00O,OD0
we are now spending about 80 !, cents
for every thousand dollars worth OF pro-
ducts in an attempt to increase the value
OF those products III future years
The work Of our station necessarily
1 differs widely from that OF many states.
The neWness OF the soil and different
climatic conditions make many lines ot
work unnecessary or Of lesser import
ance to US that are Of greater value in
localities where the sol1 is greatly i'm
poverlshed. In some states the principal
work IS III the control OF commercial
fertilizers. With us the work that would
bring immediate results OF the most prac-
tical benefit to the farmers has been first
among our undertakings.
Previous TO the passage Of this Act the
college had III its possession a farm OF
400 acres which was fairly equipped with
teams, tools and stock, ready 10 take ad
vantage OF the governments generous
offer OF SO handsome a sum for agricul
tura investigation.
The work Ut our Station includes the
departments OF agriculture, Horticulture,
chemistry. entomology, y-lernairy sci
ence, diary science, botany and meteor
ology. Two OF these divisions are just
now without heads, those Of horticulture
and veterinary, Professor kefier having
accepted similar work in the Agricul-
tural experiment station ct the Missouri
Stale University and DR.. Cary in the
agricultural college and experiment sta
ton Of Alabama These vacancies will
no QOuOt De Hllcu Will OtHof neE before
the coming seasons work begins.
1t may be OF interest To give il brief
outline of the work now ON hand in the
different departments.
In Entomology the value Of the investi-
cations can hardly be overestimatpd,
looking at it from an economic stand
point. The study OF the life his
tory Of insect pests and the best method
Of thair destruction, the discovery OF
parasites that assist in this latter work.
their propagation and Distribution over