352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they have perfect freedom in their actions so long as they adhere 

 to the purpose of the law, still Congress very wisely established a 

 central office, under the Department of Agriculture, to collect and 

 publish summaries of station work and thought in condensed and 

 popular form for the use of the public ; to publish special bulle- 

 tins for experiment-station workers ; digests of station reports ; 

 monographs, etc., and in general to serve as a medium of informa- 

 tion and exchange. 



A movement which in fifteen years increased the number 

 of regularly organized experiment stations in our own country 

 from one to fifty ; whose influence has extended to Canada, South 

 America, Australia, and Japan, causing the establishment of simi- 

 lar stations in those countries ; which this year will expend ap- 

 proximately $1,000,000 in the United States alone, exclusive of the 

 work of the Department of Agriculture ; which during the year 

 will send bulletins direct to nearly 400,000 farmers ; and whose 

 workings have been kept, in the main, free from politics must 

 have had a worthy object, efficient workers, and given practical 

 and useful results. That such is the case none familiar with the 

 investigations of at least the older stations can deny. 



The science of agriculture must always be the mother of its art, 

 and to aid the art through the study of the science agricultural 

 experiment stations were established. They were started to con- 

 duct experiments upon plants and animals and the needs of both ; 

 to improve the useful ones and eradicate the harmful ; to study 

 their nutrition in all its phases and determine the chemical com- 

 position of their foods ; to learn how to cure their diseases, and 

 promote their health; and besides increasing their productiveness 

 and the quality of their products by proper food and care, to also 

 introduce new and valuable ones from other localities. They were 

 intended to study fertilizers and fertilization; the vitality and 

 germination of seed ; the variability of soils and waters ; rainfall 

 and general climatic conditions ; and other questions influencing 

 rural economy. But this was not all, for their chief aim was to 

 distribute information, and to help educate the occupants of our 

 farms and plantations, giving new aims, zest, and ambition to their 

 too often humdrum life. In short, the United States experiment 

 stations aim to help the American farmer in mind and pocket. 



The greatest obstacle which the stations have met has been a 

 demand by the farmers for immediate results, and a prejudice 

 against the laboratory and its work ; but this gradually disappears 

 as the farmers become more and more familiar with science. On 

 this account the older stations are undoubtedly doing better work 

 to-day than those of more recent origin, which are still struggling 

 against this sentiment. Experience has taught, not only in Ger- 

 many but here, that thoroughly scientific investigation invariably 



