EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 2. March, 1891. No. 8. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The following statements regarding the Austrian agricultural exper- 

 iment stations are taken from an account of these stations * published 

 by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture on the occasion of the Agri- 

 cultural and Forestry Exhibition held in Vienna in 1890. 



There are at present four governmental experiment stations [staat- 

 liche Versucksanstalten). These receive a part of their support from the 

 Austrian Imperial Government. There are sixteen stations which are 

 not governmental {nicht-staatliche Versucksanstalten). Of these, seven 

 are not directly connected with any educational institution, and nine 

 are connected with eight agricultural schools. Chemical or other 

 investigations in agricultural lines are carried on in at least seven other 

 schools. Several of the non-governmental stations are established and 

 supported by societies, and some receive financial aid from provincial 

 governments. Most of the stations and laboratories receive fees for 

 analj^ses and other investigations, which in a luimber of cases are the 

 l)rincipal source of revenue of the stations. The number of analyses 

 and examinations made for farmers and other private individuals has 

 greatly increased during the past few years. Most of the stations have 

 adopted a fixed schedule of fees for private work, a reduction being 

 often made to the members of the agricultural societies which support 

 the stations, or when the results are likely to be of general interest. 

 A few stations, however, do work of this kind free of charge. An im- 

 portant feature of the Austrian stations is the training of young men 

 in the methods of station work and the giving of practical instruction 

 to persons engaged in the sugar, alcohol, silk, and other industries, . 

 many of the assistants in the laboratories being volunteer workers, who 

 receive no pay. 



•Das Land- und Forstwirtschaftliche Versuchswesen iu deu iiu Reichsrathe ver- 

 treteuen Konigreiclien und Laudern, Wieu, 1390, m). 113. 



385 



