72 



in agricnltural education was the laolv of definite Ivnowledge witli reference to 

 the subjects to be taught. Those who were most intimately associated witli tlie 

 agricultural instruction being given at that time saw most clearly the need for 

 carefully planned and definite experiments which would lead to a broader 

 knowledge of agrii-ultural affairs. This was true because the early agricul- 

 turist was usually a practical farmer or chemist who had little knowledge of 

 practical farm affairs, either from his own experience or the experience of 

 others. 



The agricultural instruction received by the students in our agricultural col- 

 leges and at farmers' institutes even at as late a date as ISOO was quite differ- 

 ent from the instruction which is being given at the present time, and the change 

 in agricultural teaching all along the line has been wrought more through the 

 knowledge gained by the agricultural experiment stations than from any other 

 reason. So strong was the demand for definite information relating to agri- 

 cultural affairs, for experiments wliich would prove or disprove what was being 

 taught, that the result was the organization of agricultural experiment stations. 



For some years before the passage of what is known as the Hatch Act, under 

 which the Federal experiment stations were organized, high-grade experiment 

 work was being conducted in connection with several of the agricultural colleges, 

 and especially were Connecticut. New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts pio- 

 neers in the line of agricultural experiment work. 



The successful farmers' institute lecturer of the present day is possessed with 

 a mass of data and facts which has been largely secured as the result of experi- 

 ment station work. So generally accepted now are many of the facts relating to 

 agriculture which a few years ago were unheard of that wo even forget that it 

 is only within recent years that these facts have been discovered and the prin- 

 ciples underlying them demonstrated. No farmers' institute lecturer at the 

 present time would attempt to disconrse upon the subject of soils without a 

 knowledge of the work done by King of Wisconsin, Ililgard of California, and 

 Whitney of Washington. No expert upon the subject of animal feeding would 

 attempt to give a lecture at a farmers' institute without a knowledge of the 

 work done by Armsby, Henry, and Jordan, and these men mentioned have all 

 been pioneers and leaders iij experiment station work. Along other lines of 

 agricultural knowledge than those mentioned is the mark of the experiment 

 station equally evident. Agricultural bacteriology was a science practically 

 unknown until within recent years, and even dairy bacteriology, which the 

 farmers' institute lecturer will discuss learnedly, was almost unmentioned ten 

 and fifteen years ago. The best experiment station work has been done by the 

 men who saw the most apparent need for such work, by men who realized most 

 fully the shortcomings of agricultural knowledge and the deficiency in agricul- 

 tural instruction. Much of the best work has been done by men who have, to 

 a considerable extent, been occupied by other matters. 



The experiment stations and farmers' institutes were both organized for work 

 in part along parallel lines. But while the farmers' institute is clearly an 

 educational proposition, the experiment station is not only for the dissemination 

 of information, but it is first of all for the securing of information at first hand. 

 The duties of the experiment stations were stated in the act of Marcli 7, 1SS7, 

 commonly known as the Hatch Act, and they were said to be " to aid in ac(iuir- 

 ing and distributing among the people of the United States useful and valuable 

 information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific 

 investigation, and to experiment respecting the i»rinciples and application of 

 agricultural science." It is thus evident that the experiment stations were 

 organized for the specific purpose of acquiring and disseminating agricultural 

 information. Without doubt some of the experiment stations have laid too 



