REPORT OF PRESIDENT WILLITS. 29 



sent to each of said stations, to the said commissioner of agriculture, and to the secretary of the 

 treasury of the United States. 



Sec. 4. That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at least once la 

 three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States and territories in 

 which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may 

 request the same, and as far as the means of the station will permit. Such bulletins or reports, 

 and the annual reports of said stations, shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States free 

 •of charge for postage, under such regulations as the postmaster general may from time to time 

 prescribe. 



Sec. 5. That for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations and 

 experiments, and printing and distributing the results as hereinbefore prescribed, the sum of 

 : $15,000 is hereby appropriated to each State to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropria- 

 tions from year to year, and to each territory entitled under the provisions of section eight of this 

 act, out of any money in the treasury proceeding from the sales of public lands, to be paid in equal 

 ■ quarterly payments on the first day of January, April, July and October in each year, to the 

 treasurer or other officer duly appointed by the governing boards of said colleges to receive the 

 same, the first payment to be made on the first day of October, 1887 : Provided, however. That out of 

 the first annual appropriation so received by any station an amount not exceeding one-fifth may be 

 •expended in the erection, enlargement or repair of a building or buildings necessary for carrying on 

 the work of such station ; and thereafter an amount not exceeding five per centum, of such annual 

 appropriation may be so expended. 



Sec. 6. That whenever it shall appear to the secretary of the treasury from the annual statement 

 of receipts and expenditures of any of said stations, that a portion of the preceding annual appro- 

 priation remains unexpended, such amount shall be deducted from the next succeeding annual 

 appropriation to such station, in order that the amount of money appropriated to any station shall 

 not exceed the amount actually and necessarily required for its maintenance and support. 



Sec. 7. That nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing 

 between any of the said colleges and the government of the States or territories in which they are 

 respectively located. 



Sec. 8. That in States having colleges entitled under this section to the benefits of this act, and 

 having also agricultural experiment stations established by law separate from said colleges, such 

 States shall be authorized to apply such benefits to experiments at stations so established by such 

 States; and in case any State shall have established, under the provisions of said act of July second, 

 aforesaid, an agricultural department or experimental station in connection with any university, 

 college or institution not distinctively an agricultural college or school, and such State shall have 

 established, or shall hereafter establish a separate agricultural college or school, which shall have 

 connected therewith an experimental farm or station, the Legislature of such State may apply in 

 whole or in part the appropriation by this act made to such separate agricultural college or school ; 

 and no Legislature shall, by contract express or implied, disable itself from so doing. 



Sec. 9. That the grants of moneys authorized by this act are made subject to the Legislative 

 assent of the several States and territories to the purpose of said grants: Provided, That payments 

 of such installments of the appropriation herein made as shall become due to any State before the 

 adjournment of the regular session of its legislature meeting next after the passage of this act shall 

 be made upon the assent of the Governor thereof duly certified to the secretary of the treasury. 



Sec. 10. Nothing in this act shall be held or construed as binding the United States to continue 

 any payments from tiie treasury to any or all the States or institutions mentioned in this act, but 

 Congress may at any time amend, suspsnd or repeal any or all of the provisions of this act. 



The bill as originally drafted by the committee, and which was called the 

 Hatch bill for the reason that Mr. Hatch was the very efficient chairman of 

 the committee on agriculture in the House, carried the annual appropriation 

 in the bill itself. But in the three days' discussion in the Senate the whole 

 bill was sadly mutilated, not from intent, but from a desire to harmonize 

 sundry conflicting demands. Among other things, it was thought best that 

 this law should be no exception to the general rule, which is that all expendi- 

 tures shall be specifically appropriated annually by Congress; hence the 

 words " to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropriations from 

 year to year" were inserted in the fifth section. By accident the word 

 "hereafter" was not incorporated in the amendment. It was supposed that 

 the specific appropriation made in the preceding words would carry the appro- 

 ..tions for the first year, and the intent was that only hereafter should the 



