730 AGRICULTURE 



proposition for the establishment of an agricultural college in Penn- 

 sylvania came to an untimely end. In 1821 instruction was given in 

 agriculture in the lyceum at Gardiner, Maine. In 1824 a school of 

 agriculture was opened at Derby, Connecticut. A number of other 

 similar attempts were made previous to the passage of the Land Grant 

 Act of 1862, but of these only two or three persist. The gist of 

 the whole movement was to adapt education to men's lives. The 

 culmination was the Land Grant Act, the purpose of which is 

 "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial 

 classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." So far as 

 agriculture was concerned, the Land Grant Act was somewhat pre- 

 mature. The developing and organizing mechanical and engineering 

 trades were the first to profit by it. Agriculture will now have its 

 turn. 



The tide to the limitless west rose and fell, and we came to a pause. 

 The technical problems of the farmer called for study. His personal 

 difficulties pressed for solution directly on the farm. These problems 

 are of two categories: (1) to remove the special disabilities (insects, 

 fungi, weeds, animal diseases), (2) to augment production (fertilizers, 

 soil studies, tillage, improving plants and animals). Then was born 

 the experiment station (in 1887) : the idea is to improve the farm; it 

 is investigational, not educational. 



How special the purpose of the Experiment Station Act is may be 

 seen at once from the purposes that it definitely mentions: 



" That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to 

 conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology 

 of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally sub- 

 ject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of 

 useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative 

 advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of 

 crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analy- 

 sis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural 

 or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative 

 effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses 

 and forage-plants; the composition and digestibility of the different 

 kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic 

 questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such 

 other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural 

 industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advis- 

 able, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the 

 respective states or territories." 



The experiment stations are holding to these special fields with 

 great faithfulness. In a lot of three hundred and fourteen bulletins 

 that came to my attention bearing the date of 1903, the following 

 rough classification of subjects was made: 



