33 STATE [BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The union of the stations with the several Agricultnral Colleges, is based on the 

 following reasons: 



1st. Economy. Each college has buildings and apparatus (including farm) for such 

 purposes, wliich could not be specially provided for many tliousands of dollars. 

 It has its organized board of trustees and a faculty that can give important aid. 

 2d. The investigations would be of great benefit to the students of the colleges as 

 object lessons, and would perfect and give practical value to the work of the colleges, 

 as contemplated in the original law creating them. 



Section 4 wisely gives to the Commissioner o^ Agriculture such a relation to these 

 stations as will systematize their work throughout the United States, and will avoid 

 too much repetition of experiments at different stations. 



To the great work of establishing Agricultural Experiment Stations, we invite 

 the attention of the thoughtful men of this countrj', and ask their aid, so far as tliey 

 can indorse the views here presented. Respectfully, 



S. A. KJTAPP, 

 President of the loioa Agricultural College, and Chairman of the 

 committee, appointed by the Department of Agriculture, on 

 experiment stations at the several Agricidtural Colleges. 



The matter of experiment stations lias been discussed in the State agri- 

 cultural societies, the State grange, and in the poniological and horticultural 

 societies of the State, and an earnest desire expressed that such a one should 

 be established. I find in a published address before the poniological society at 

 Allegan, February 19, 1SS4-, by Mr. A. J. Bracelin, a student in tlie college 

 in 18G7 and 1868, a portion of a letter of mine, giving my idea of the rela- 

 tion of an experimental station to the college, which I take the liberty to 

 transcribe. Mr. Bracelin says: 



I have conferred with President Abbot, and take pleasure in submitting to you liis 

 estimate of such a department and his plan of how it should be conducted. He saj'S: 

 '"You ask. 'Would a farmer's experiment station, added to our agricidtural college, 

 be beneficial to the practical farmer and horticulturist?' Tiie term 'experiment 

 station' is somewhat vague, but I have no hesitation in saying that, in the sense in 

 which 1 understand it. such a station is higlilj'^ desirable. I would not think it well 

 /o2' tAe co?;e£r(;, however it might be with the science of agriculture, to plant here an 

 experiment station to be conducted independently of the various departments at 

 the college, and of their separate heads; but if the term means such an enlargement 

 of force and means as would enable our officers greatly to extend their experimental 

 work. I saj' yes. We have ordinaril}' done at this college. I believe, more experi- 

 menting than any simply experiment station in the United States. It is rather an 

 extension of our work than a superseding of it by a foreign .set of workers with new 

 laboratories, that seems to me to be needed. Take for example chemistry. Arti- 

 ficial fertilizers are beginning to be used in this State more than ever before, espec- 

 ially, perhaps, by horticulturists. Now, many of the experiments that would natur- 

 .ally be tried would require the joint ellorts of a skillful, well-read horticulturist, and 

 of a chemist. "W^e have three, and under their directions and immediate oversight, 

 young graduates could do the work which would otherwise call for separate men of 

 "high attainments and salaries. I do not speak of the government inspection of 

 phosphates and other fertilizers offered for sale, because any good chemist, author- 

 ized by the State courts, would suffice, probably, for that simply; and yet there 

 might be an advantage in having that work done in a place where any practical 

 question might receive a practical test. Such inspection forms a large part of what 

 is done in many experiment stations. 



"But if the questions before an experiment station were such, and involved one, as 

 the source of nitrogen in plants — such as Dr. Kedzie has been engaged in — what 

 could such a station do? The persons competent to perform such experiments are 

 so very few that a small number of stations would exhaust the supply in the 

 country, and an independent station of such investigation would require labor- 

 atories, apparatus, and a high-priced chemist, and might as well be in one place as 

 another. My plan would be to give our chemist, who is one of the few competent 

 men, all the skilled help he needs, and such a limited field of labor that he can do 

 the work. One liead, of course, must plan and direct, while much detail work could 

 be done by such graduates as develop an aptitude for the work, while not 

 improbably such practice here might develop and bring into the field, in time, 



