AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 597 



Although experiment stations are still somewhat of a novelty in 

 this country, they are far from being so in others. There is scarcely 

 a country in Europe where one or more is not in operation, while in 

 the German Empire they number not less than fifty. The first to be 

 established was that at Rothamsted, just alluded to, in 1843. This 

 has continued to the present time, though not under the name of an 

 experiment station. Nine years later, the station at Mockern, in Sax- 

 ony, which had been carried on for some two years by private and 

 corporate generosity, received a grant of money from the state, and 

 became the first public station. In 1853 a station was founded at 

 Chemnitz, in 1855 one at Gross-Kmehlin, and, for the succeeding 

 twenty-two years, 1860 was the only year which did not witness the 

 institution of at least one station. Other European nations followed 

 the example of the German states, and stations were established by 

 France in 185G, by Austria in 1857, by Holland in 1857, by Sweden in 

 1861, by Russia in 1864, by Italy in 1870, by Denmark in 1871, by 

 Belgium in 1872, by Switzerland in 1872, by Austro-Hungary in 1873, 

 by Scotland in 1875, by Spain in 1876. The value of the scientific 

 work done by these stations during the last thirty years and the im- 

 petus it has given to rational agriculture are very great. The fact 

 that, in a volume published on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anni- 

 versary of the Mockern station, one hundred and forty-six octavo 

 pages are occupied with a list of the titles of papers published by 

 them up to that time will give some idea of its amount. 



The first experiment station in this country was founded at Middle- 

 town, Connecticut, in 1875, being supported in part by the State and 

 in part by Wesleyan University. In 1877 it was reorganized and re- 

 moved to New Haven, becoming entirely dependent on State support, 

 and in 1882 it was provided with land and buildings by the State. 



In 1877 North Carolina organized a station, located first at the 

 State University at Chapel Hill, and subsequently at Raleigh. New 

 Jersey followed the example of these two States in 1880, placing its 

 station at the State Agricultural College at New Brunswick. The 

 New York station was incorporated in 1881, and began operations in 

 1882 at Geneva. The Ohio station was organized in April, 1882, and 

 is located at the State University at Columbus; and the Massachusetts 

 station was organized in the autumn of the same year, at the Agricul- 

 tural College at Amherst. The private experiment stations are repre- 

 sented by Houghton Farm, in New York, where experimental work 

 was begun in 1879 ; and mention should also be made of the Cornell 

 University experiment station at Ithaca, which has published a single 

 report. At least two other States are debating the question of estab- 

 lishing stations, and there is every indication of a rapid multiplication 

 of them in this country in the immediate future. 



With regard to the value of experimental station work in America, 

 it is yet too early to formulate an opinion. In general it may be said 



