EXPERIMENT STATION". 13 



" A plain brick building with the capacity of a large dwelling 

 house, would give the Station good accommodation in all these 

 respects. 



" To carry on the Station thus equipped in a manner commensu- 

 rate with the interests involved would require some increase of its 

 funds, for several purposes. 



1. To enlarge its laboratory outfit, Avhich is barely siifficient 

 for the analytical work it has had to do, but ought to be consid- 

 erably extended for profitable working. 



2. To establish a working reference library. The Station must 

 be vitally defective unless those who labor in it can have ready 

 and constant access to all the special books, journals and Reports 

 which record the results of investigations in the Experiment Sta- 

 tions of other States and Countries. 



3. The Station will need a larger fund for current expenses so 

 soon as it begins to experiment in the field, garden and plant- 

 house." 



It is, I believe, universally believed by all who are capable of 

 intelligent judgment, that the Experiment Station as now carried 

 on has been of great service to our agriculture, and has saved 

 many times its cost to the State of Connecticut in the single item 

 of Commercial Fertilizers. 



It is evident that a continuance of Station work is indispensable 

 in order that our farmers may have the means of knowing with 

 reasonable accuracy, what is offered in the fertilizer market, and 

 Avhat are fair prices for a costly class of goods whose commercial 

 value can only be ascertained by chemical analysis. 



But in fact the Experiment Station, if suitably equipped, can 

 do a grander and vastly more profitable work for the State than 

 by the analysis of Commercial Fertilizers. 



The virgin soils of the Western Prairies are brought into press- 

 ing competition with our rugged and " exhausted " fields by the 

 increasing facilities for cheap transportation, and by the eager 

 industry of the array of immigrants which continually invades 

 our country. During the last twelve months Europe has poured 

 upon us nearly 700,000 men, women and children, mostly reared 

 to habits of assiduous labor, and many of them accustomed to 

 such desperate economies that they are easily able to live on what 

 we commonly throw away. 



To maintain our position as a State preeminent in all that has 

 made New England civilization so powerful and beneficent in 



