48 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



also being - conducted in the cereal work in the Middle West 

 and on the Pacific Coast extensive operations are under way 

 which have aleady led to most valuable results, the means for 

 preventing- many of the serious injuries to the crops of that 

 part of the country having been pointed out to the growers. 

 Thus the work is constantly tending towards a better svstem 

 of farming — a system which in time it is hoped will enable 

 more of our people to make two blades of grass grow where 

 only one grows now. 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS.- 



It was just about twenty-five years ago when the first 

 regular experiment station was organized in Connecticut. In 

 1887 there were 17 stations in 14 different States. In that 

 year Congress passed what is known as the Hatch Act, which 

 gave to each State and Territory $15,000 annually for the 

 maintenance of an experiment station, as a part of the agri- 

 cultural college. During the past ten years more than $10,- 

 000.000 have been spent in maintaining the stations. Of this 

 sum $7,000,000 were contributed by the Federal Government 

 and $3,000,000 by the States. For the same period the agri- 

 cultural products of the United States were valued at $30.- 

 000,000,000. We have therefore spent just $1 for every $3000 

 worth of product in an effort to improve our agriculture and 

 increase the output. These stations distribute about 5,000,- 

 000 copies of publications annually to nearly 500,000 farmers. 

 Separate stations are supported in some of the States so that 

 the total number in the United States, not counting branch 

 stations, of which there are a number, is 54. Their total in- 

 come for the year 1898 was a little over $1,200,000. 



Among other work these stations, especially those east of 

 the Mississippi River, have been engaged in the investiga- 

 tion and inspection of commercial fertilizers under State 

 laws. In the State of New York over 900 brands of fertilizers 

 were examined in 1898, and the station did not then complete 

 its work. In Connecticut the business amounts to a million 

 dollars a year, while in Pennsylvania it is estimated at four 

 millions. The stations have done much to expose extrava- 

 gant claims for fertilizers, showing that the advantage of 

 farm manures, cottonseed, etc., and instructing farmers how 

 to mix their own fertilizers. By testing varieties of grains, 

 vegetables, fruits, etc., the stations have warned farmers 

 against extravagant claims for new varieties. Nursery stock 

 has been examined for fungus diseases and insect pests, and 

 inspections made of seeds, adulterated foods, dairy products, 

 butter increasers and preservatives, concentrated feed stuffs, 

 quack medicines for stock and hog cholera remedies. The 



