408 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOKD. 



agricultural interests of the commuiiit}^ through the demonstration 

 of improved methods. 



If wisely planned and administered, it would seem that such be- 

 quests could be made very helpful, and the idea might well be consid- 

 ered as an opportunity for benefiting the people of a local commu- 

 nity, not unlike those afforded by the village library or the town 

 academy, which have been favorite recipients of bequests in the 

 past. 



No comprehensive review of agricultural endowment in foreign 

 countries is attempted, but by way of illustration reference may be 

 made to the princely gifts of Sir William Macdonald in Canada, 

 including Macdonald College, and to the well-known instances of 

 the Lawes Agricultural Trust and what it has accomplished at 

 Rothamsted, the liberal aid to agricultural work at Cambrid^ge Uni- 

 versity by the Drapers' Company of London, and the bequest of the 

 late Mr. John Innes, whereby $50,000 a year is available for the 

 promotion of horticultural instruction, experiments, and research 

 at the John Innes Horticultural Institution. A sum of nearly three 

 hundred thousand dollars was recently bequeathed by the late Mr. 

 S. B. Thomas for the establishment of an agricultural college in 

 Sierra Leone, Africa. The establishment of the Imperial Agricul- 

 tural College of India, located at Pusa, is attributed to its initial 

 endowment of $150,000 by an American, Mr. Henry Phipps, of 

 Pittsburgh. What is probably the largest bequest to agriculture yet 

 recorded was recently announced on the death of Dr. S. N. Kola- 

 ceoskij, who has left property valued at over twenty million dollars 

 for the establishment of an agricultural academy in southern Russia. 



This cursory and incomplete review illustrates the scope and the 

 diversity of private aid to agricultural instruction and experimenta- 

 tion. It has come often from unexpected sources, and it shows the 

 gradual spread of an idea. 



All these various forms of gift have been helpful in their way 

 in worldng out the plan of agricultural instruction, providing for 

 experiments in different forms in periods of doubt, developing spe- 

 cial features, aiding needy students, and pointing out means for the 

 improvement of agricultural conditions locally. They call attention 

 to an opportunity for affording aid in both a small and a large way, 

 which will redound to the benefit of the public in a quite direct 

 manner and will give a large measure of return. 



The fear that, in the case of established institutions, such gifts 

 will result in a mere substitution of private funds for public appro- 

 priations does not appear to be well founded, for such gifts can be 

 made to stimulate public support and to supplement it in a variety 



