6 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



annually. This Station was not placed under the control of the 

 trustees of the college, but was intrusted to a board of managers, 

 three of whom were to be appointed by the Governor of the State, 

 the others to be the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and the 

 Professor of Agriculture at the college. 



This Station existed about two and a half years, and issued 

 twenty bulletins and three 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. 



The work of this Station consisted of the inspection of commercial 

 fertilizers, and the conducting of such experiments and investiga- 

 tions as the remaining time and means allowed. 



Upon the passage by Congress of what is known as the "Hatch 

 Act," establishing an agricultural experiment station in every State, 

 the legislature of 1887 repealed the law of March 3, 1885, by an 

 act which took effect on October 1, 1887. It was expected at the 

 time this act was passed that by October 1st 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 Con- 

 gress to appropriate money, and had not the college assumed the 

 risk of advancing the funds to pay the expenses of the Station for 

 another three months, woi'k would have ceased on the date at 

 which the old Station law stood repealed. As it was, work was 

 continued until January 1, 1888, when the Station force disbanded 

 to await the action of Congress. 



THE PRESENT STATION. 



The congressional act establishing what are known as the national 

 experiment stations, became a law on March 2, 1887, and desig- 

 nated October 1st of that year as the time at which the first 

 quarterly payments for the support of these stations should become 

 due. Congress failed, however, to make the appropriation required 

 by the act named, and so these stations did not go into operation. 

 It was not until after the passage of a deficiency biU early in 

 February, 1888, that funds became available for the payment of the 

 expenses of the year 1887-8. 



Previous to this, the Maine legislature of 1887 had accepted 

 the provision of the "Hatch Act" on the part of the State, and at 

 a meeting of the college trustees in Tune, [1887, the present Station 

 was organized as a department of the college, by the election of a 



