AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 267 



ference of the agricultural explorers of Germany has beeu 

 only once interrupted, and that by nothing less than the great 

 war of 1866. 



Previous to 1870 Italy had no institutions of this kind. In 

 that year a commissioner was sent by the government to in- 

 quire into the workings of the German experiment stations. 

 His favorable report led to their immediate establishment, 

 and four were at once organized ; nine were in operation in 

 1873, and now thirteen are in workino^ order. 



In the summer of 1874 an International Agricultural Exhi- 

 bition was held at the great German port of Bremen. Of this 

 exhibition the 10th section was exclusivelv devoted to the 

 experiment station. Thirteen experiment stations and Agri- 

 cultural Colleges were represented, and a very fair display 

 was made of the various instruments, apparatus and arrange- 

 ments employed in the stations for the scientific study of 

 agriculture, as well as printed reports and tables, drawings, 

 and diagrams illustrative of the methods and results of inves- 

 tigation. The experiment stations having unitedly declined 

 to receive a money premium, had conferred on them the grand 

 prize of honor of the Senate of the city of Bremen. 



But what have the experiment stations accomplished? The 

 farmer's work consists first in converting soil and manures 

 into crops ; second, in converting crops into beef, mutton, 

 pork, milk, wool, labor and manure. In Europe the farmer 

 often manufactures some of his crops into starch, sugar, wine, 

 alcohol, &c. 



The very earliest investigations in the Moeckern station 

 were upon "The feeding of sheep to ascertain the best 'sus- 

 taining rations,'" i. e., the best combination of food for 

 simply maintaining the weight and condition of a mature 

 sheep, and upon "The dependency of plants oil the atmos- 

 phere, and on mineral salts and salts of ammonia." These 

 fundamental questions of agricultural science had been much 

 discussed in the universities, and much was known about 

 them, but they were far from a satisfactory solution. On 

 the farms, too, there prevailed the greatest diversity of 



