236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Some of you who were at Middletown a year ago last 

 November, when the 25th anniversary of the estabHshment 

 of the first experiment station in the United States was cele- 

 brated, heard then how the first of these institutions began its 

 work in Connecticut at Middletown in 1875, how the enter- 

 prise has grown, how other states followed our example, until 

 twelve years after the beginnings in Connecticut, some fifteen 

 or sixteen stations were in operation, and how, in 1887, Con- 

 gress made the enterprise national by providing for the estab- 

 lishment of agricultural experiment stations in every State 

 and Territory in the Union. If you will take the pains to ex- 

 amine the last report of the Director of the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations in Washington, which, as you know, is the 

 center of the whole system, you will see that there are no less 

 than fifty-seven of these institutions in dififerent states and 

 territories subject to the United States, including not only 

 one in Alaska, but one in Hawaii, and one in process of es- 

 tablishment in Porto Rico. You will see, furthermore, that 

 the 'Secretary of Agriculture has recommended to Congress 

 the establishment of a similar institution in the Philippines. 

 I think that is a little interesting. We have talked about 

 war, and talked about conquest, but is it not an interesting 

 thing that in the beginning of this twentieth century the first 

 thing that follows conquest, the thing that produces the con- 

 quest almost, is the effort which is being made to look out 

 for the higher physical, intellectual and moral welfare of the 

 people in our new possessions? Is it not an interesting thing 

 that we are preparing to carry on all kinds of benevolent 

 enterprises, hygienic, educational, and scientific, in our new 

 possessions, and that the people of the United States second 

 the demand for these enterprises, and that even in the distant 

 islands of the Philippines they will probably soon have an 

 agricultural experiment station? 



Experiment stations have been in operation in the United 

 States for a little over twenty-six years (it being twenty-six 

 years since the first one was established in Connecticut), and 

 that being so it may seem a little strange that I should men- 

 tion the fact that we have two stations in Connecticut, but I 

 find a great many of my intelligent fellow citizens who do 

 not quite understand about our experiment stations in Con- 

 necticut, and I want to explain to them that there are two: 



