262 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



It depended for its quarters upon the hospitality of the Elaine 

 State College. A chemical laboratory for tlie Station was par- 

 titioned off from the College laboratory and supplied 

 with apparatus. Part of the dairy room of the College was 

 fitted up with apparatus for use in experiments involving the 

 handling of milk. A part of the new barn just erected by the 

 College was turned over to the Experiment Station for feeding 

 experiments and was fitted up with stalls, scales, etc. Field 

 experiments were started by laying off about three acres of land 

 into blocks, and box experiments for growing plants were also 

 begiui. 



While the principal object of the establishment of this^ 

 Station was the maintenance of a fertilizer control, in the 

 first months of existence lines of investigation were entered 

 upon, many of which have been continuously followed by 

 this Station. 



The Maine Fertilizer Control and Agricultural Experiment 

 Station existed about two and a half years and issued 26 

 bulletins and 3 reports, the former being published only in the 

 leading papers of the State and the latter as a part of the 

 report of the Maine Board of Agriculture. Upon the passage 

 by Congress of what is known as the Hatch Act, establishing 

 agricultural experiment stations in every state, the Legislature 

 of 1887 repealed the law of ^March 3. 1885, by an act which 

 took effect October i, 1887. It was expected at the time this 

 act was passed, that by October first a station would be in 

 operation under the provisions of the national law. This did 

 not prove to be the case, owing to the failure of Congress to 

 appropriate money, and had not the College assumed the risk 

 of advancing the funds to pay the expenses of the Station, 

 work would have ceased on the date in which the old station 

 law stood repealed. As it was, the work was continued until 

 January 1888, when the station force disbanded to await the 

 action of Congress. It was not until after the passage of the 

 deficiency bill earl}^ in Februar\\ 188S, that the funds became 

 available for the payment of the expenses of the year 1887- 

 1888. Prior to this, the Maine Legislature of 1887 had accept- 

 ed the provisions of the Hatch Act on the part of the State, 

 and at the meeting of the College Trustees in June, 1887, the 



