28 DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



lege which should be exclusively devoted to experiments in agriculture and' 

 cognate sciences. Efforts had been made in the Forty-eighth Congress, but 

 they failed. It was not till the Forty-ninth Congress that a systematic and 

 successful movement was made. July 8, 1885, a convention of all the agri- 

 cultural colleges in the United States was held in Washington and a united 

 effort was initiated to present the matter to the Forty-ninth Congress, to 

 assemble the following December. Being on the committee appointed by 

 that convention, I spent seven weeks in Washington in December and 

 January, 1885-6, and ten days last winter. The first session the bill, as we- 

 matured it, was gotten through the committees of both houses, and there it 

 remained for the second session. The chances were slim for its passage amid 

 the overwhelming mass of unfinished legislation and the conflicting interests 

 incident to the wants of a great country. But by dint of hard work it passed 

 the Senate in a mutilated form and went to the House of Representatives, 

 where, near the close of the session, under suspension of the rules, and there- 

 fore without chance for amendment, it passed by an overwhelming vote and 

 went to the President, who signed it March 2, 1887. 

 The following is a copy of the act as passed : 



THE HATCH BILL. 



[Fall text of the Experiment Station Bill as enacted by Congress and approved by the President.} 



AN ACT to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established 

 in the several States under [the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-two, and of i^he acts supplementary thereto. 



Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 

 America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of 

 the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to 

 promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and applications of agri- 

 cultural science, there shall be established, under direction of the college or colleges, or agricultural 

 department of colleges, in each State or territory established, or which may hereafter be established 

 in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, 

 entitled " An act donating public lands to the several States and territories which may provide 

 colleges for the beueflt of agriculture and the mechanic arts," or any of the supplements to said 

 act, a department to be known and designated as an " agricultural experiment station:" Provided^ 

 That in any State or territory in which two such colleges have been or may be so established, the 

 appropriation hereinafter made to such State or territory hall be equally divided between such 

 colleges, unless the Legislature of such State or territory shall otherwise direct. 



Sec. 3. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original 

 researches or verify the experiments on the physiology of plants and animals ; the diseases to which 

 they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same ; the chemical composition of useful 

 plants at their different stages of growth ; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pur- 

 sued under a varying series of crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analy- 

 sis of soils and water ; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments 

 designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of 

 grasses and forage plants ; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for 

 domestic animals ; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and 

 cheese ; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of 

 the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying con- 

 ditions and needs of the respective States or territories. 



Sec. 3. That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the 

 work of said stations it shall be the duty of the United States commissioner of agriculture to fur- 

 nish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiments ; to 

 indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important ; and in 

 general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this act. It 

 shall be the duty of each of said stations annually, on or before the first day of February, to 

 make to the Governor of the State or territory in which it is located, a full and detailed report of 

 its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures," a copy of which report shall be 



