256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.', 



Secretary Northrop. I most heartily approve of these res- 

 olutions. I cannot doubt that they will meet the cordial 

 assent of this assembly of practical farmers, and that the 

 r.esults will more and more demonstrate the economy of the 

 appropriations made for the Experiment Station. I think 

 there can be no need of a full discussion of this subject, 

 which must commend itself to every intelligent and thought- 

 ful farmer. 



Mr. Sedgwick. Those of us who attended the meeting at 

 Meriden, in which this discussion first came up, and around 

 wliich gathered tlie interest which afterwards gave us the 

 Experiment Station, have noticed with admiration and pride 

 the growth of this station. We all know that the interest 

 which built up our Experiment Station was first awakened by 

 the fact that the examinations made by Prof. Johnson, for 

 the Connecticut Board of Agiiculture, showed us that we 

 were being defrauded in fertilizers. That was the main thing 

 which built up our Experiment Station. Well, sir, what has 

 been the result of this station, not only to the agriculture of 

 Connecticut, but to the agriculture of the whole United 

 States? Dollars and cents would not express it, sir. The re- 

 sult has been that it has driven out from the market nearly 

 every worthless fertilizer that was offered at the time it was 

 first organized, and you will notice, if you read the pamph- 

 lets of the fertilizer manufacturers, that they point with pride 

 to the analyses made by the Connecticut Experiment Station 

 testing their goods. And these reports are published over the 

 whole United Statos, showing that what the station has done 

 has been not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of the 

 country at large. But this is not the only field that we need 

 experiments in. Mr. Hart has designated one, and there are 

 other departments of our ordinary farm operations which will 

 bear scientific tests, but owing to the limited means of our 

 station, owing to the lack of ground in which they can ex- 

 periment, they cannot undertake such operations ; but it 

 seems to me, as a farmer and tax payer of this State, that we 

 have arrived at a point where we can afford to open up other 

 avenues of investigation into which our scientific men can 



