604 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Polytechnicum at Riga. No other stations were established until 1878, 

 when the experimental fields of the Petrov Agricultural Academy at 

 Moscow were organized. The experimental fields of the agricultural 

 institute at Novo-Alexandria, Poland, date from the following year. 

 From that time on there has been a steady increase in the number of 

 stations. The earlier stations owe their existence to zemstvos, societies, 

 and private persons. Not until 181)4 did the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture render assistance to the enterprise. In that year it took 

 a considerable number of stations under its patronage, and began to 

 open new stations in various localities in Russia, Since that time the 

 development of these institutions has been quite rapid. 



The Russian stations as they exist at present may be divided into 

 three groups, (1) stations for general investigation, conducting experi- 

 ments on their own fields, of which there are 43; (2) stations for special 

 investigations, of which there are 14 — 3 for silk culture, 2 for apicul- 

 ture, 2 for flax culture, 2 for bacteriological investigations, 1 for dairy- 

 ing, 3 for viticulture, and 1 for vegetable growing; and (3) control 

 stations, of which there are 11. Some of the stations are wholly main- 

 tained by the government, while others are supported by local com- 

 munities, societies, and private persons, in some cases with the aid of 

 the ministry of agriculture. A number of the stations receive annual 

 appropriations amounting to $2,800 from the government, and the 

 Turkestan Station receives about $3,800 from that source. 



Among the best-equipped stations are said to be the Plotyausk, 

 Derebchinsk, Zapolsk, and Poltava stations for general work, the 

 Tiflis Station for silk culture, the Edimonov Station for special work, 

 the control stations at Warsaw, Riga, and Helsingfors, and the St. 

 Petersburg Bacteriological Station. 



The station staff usually consists of two persons, a director and an 

 assistant, although in some instances there are additional regular 

 assistants as well as volunteer assistants. 



Aside from the inadequate number of stations (one station to 90,000 

 square kilometers) and their unequal distribution, which leaves impor- 

 tant agricultural regions without any provision for experimental work, 

 the absence of a unifying central institution is believed to be a great 

 hindrance to their development. There is no general plan of organiza- 

 tion. They have no organ for the publication of their results, and 

 information regarding them is difficult to obtain. The experiment 

 station movement which has been inaugurated by the ministry of 

 agriculture should remedy these conditions, add materially to the 

 influence of the stations already existing, and bring their work into 

 closer touch with more advanced classes of agriculturists. 



