404 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



could not otherwise succeed Mr, Orange Judd, then editor and pro- 

 prietor of the American Agriculturist^ offered on his own part $1,000 

 to begin the undertaking and on the part of the trustees of Wesleyan 

 University the free use of its chemical laboratory. These offers were 

 made on condition that the legislature should appropriate $2,800 per 

 annum for two years for the maintenance of the station. 



Small as were these contributions in amount they proved to be the 

 turning point in the scale. An act making the appropriation pro- 

 posed was passed unanimously and approved July 2, 1875. The 

 organization at Middletown of the first experiment station in this 

 countr}^ speedily followed, and in the period provided for so clearly 

 demonstrated the usefulness of the enterprise that the State assumed 

 responsibility for its operation on a permanent basis at New Haven. 

 Other States soon followed the example set by Connecticut, among 

 them Massachusetts, where a similar gift was made in 1878 by Hon. 

 Levi Stockbridge. To these small beginnings may be traced the 

 comprehensive system of experiment station research of to-day. 



The Houghton Farm enterprise deserves mention as the only at- 

 tempt in America to establish an agricultural experiment station 

 through the munificence of a single individual. In 1876 Mr. Lawson 

 Valentine, of New York City, acquired a tract of several hundred 

 acres in Cornwall, Orange County, N. Y., which he soon afterwards 

 planned to utilize for systematic experimentation in agriculture, on 

 the general model of the work of Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted. 

 In 1881 Major Henry E. Alvord was placed in charge, with instruc- 

 tions to organize and operate a scientific department devoted to agri- 

 cultural investigation and experiment. Houghton Farm was con- 

 ducted along these lines for about five years, the experimental depart- 

 ment being maintained at a total cost of nearly $20,000 per annum. 

 Operations were finally ended by the death of Mr. Valentine in 1888. 



To Mr. William E. Lockwood, of Norwalk, Conn., belongs the 

 credit for the first considerable permanent endowment of agricultural 

 research in this country. In a will dated January 9, 1894, half of 

 Mr. Lockwood's estate was devised to the Connecticut State Station 

 "to use and apply all the balance or net income in the promotion of 

 agriculture by scientific investigation and experiment, and by dif- 

 fusing a knowledge of the practical results thereof among-the people 

 of the State of Connecticut in such manner as shall be deemed by the 

 board of control or governing body of said institution for the time 

 being, most practicable and generally useful." This bequest now 

 yields an income of about $10,000 a year. 



One of the largest bequests for agricultural education has been that 

 of Mr. Benjamin Thompson, a farmer of Durham, N. H. Mr. 

 Thompson died in 1890, leaving practically his entire estate to the 



