The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-06-11

Under the impetus of the second
Morrill, Act agricultural education in
the colleges developed rapidly and
with it came demands for institutions
of school grade. The demands on the
agricultural colleges for leadership in
a variety of lines of work, and espec.
tally in matters relating to the develop-
ment of all forms of agricultural teach.
ing. emphasized the need of further
appropriation, attention 10 which was
called by the presidents aud admins.
~trative officers of the agricultural col
leges, special emphasis being laid on
the necessity for preparation of teach.
ers in agriculture.
Accordingly, Senator Knute Nelson
introduced an amendment TO the agri-
cultural appropriation bill of of the
department of agriculture for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1908, providing
an additional appropriation out of any
money in the treasury not otherwise
appropriated of $4,000 for the fiscal
year 1908, and an annual increase of
the amount by $4,000 over the pre-.
ceeding year for four years the amount
thereafter to be $4,000 in addition to
that carried by the second Morrill, Act.
The amendment contained the pro-
vision that said colleges may use a
portion of this money for providing
courses for the special preparation of
instructors for teaching the elements
of agriculture and the mechanic arts"
The work of the agricultural colleges
early developed the need for agricul-
tural experimentation and investiga.
ton, to furnish the basis for the teach
ing of agriculture in science and prac-
tice, The experience of Europe in es-
tablishing experiment stations for that
purpose was eagerly followed and the
Investigations of individuals like
Liebig in Germany and Boussingault
in France and Lawes and Gilbert at
Rothamsted, England, were widely
quoted in the class room, at agricul-
tural meetings, and in the public press.
Experimental work was inaugurated
at several of the agricultural colleges
and an experiment station was provid-
ed in Connecticut in 1875, with an an
nual state appropriation. Other states
followed tho ronid ntrndIntinn nf
commercial fertilizers and the need
for inspection lending impetus for the
movement. 1t soon became evident,
however, that the results of expert
ment station work were not restricted
to state boundaries but that many of
them eyre of nationwide application,
and that agricultural investigation
needed fostering to an extent which
could not be provided for by state
funds.
A convention of delegates from the
agricultural colleges met at Washing
ton in 1883 and discussed and Endorsed
the project for the establishment of ex-
pertinent stations in connection with
the colleges, in accordance with the
terms of a bill already introduced in
the house of representatives by Hon.
C. C. Carpenter of Iowa. The measure,
however, failed of sufficient support
and it was not put upon it's passage.
In 1885 a convention of agricultural
colleges and experiment stations met
at Washington, urged the necessity
for national aid for investigation and
experimentation, and Endorsed the Gull
len bill introduced in the previous
congress providing funds for that pur-
pose. The Cullen bill was similar in
it's general provisions to the bill after
wards passed by congress, now popu-
larly known as the Hatch Act.
At the next session OF congress Hon.
William H. Hatch of Missouri, intro
duced a bill for providing an annual
appropriation of $4,000 to each state
and territory u of funds proceeding
from the sale of public lands for the
establishment and maintenance of an
agricultural experiment station, as a
department of the Immigrant colleges
established under the act of 1862. The
committee on agriculture made a
favorable report on this bill in March,
1886, and nearly a year later it was
passed by congress and was approved
by President Cleveland March 2, 1887.
Once the confidence of the agricul-
tural people in the ability of the ex-
pertinent station to aid them was Sc
cured, the demands upon the stations
became enormous. Information of I'M
mediate practical application was par
ticularly desired, with the result that
the funds and the time of the station
employees became quite largely abb
sorbed in studying somewhat local
questions and working out by the
simpler forms of experiments, ques-
tons relating to the culture and ferti-
LIKING of crops, the comparative value
of feeds for live stock, the control of
injurious insects and plant diseases,
etc. The ~inadequacy of the appro-
priation under the Hatch Act, although
ov;to 1;horol1y c,pportod NV cfofo an-