EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 36. March, 1917. No. 4. 



There are three distinct landmarks in the development of agi'i- 

 cultural inquiry in this coimtry. The first was set up when one of 

 the States became sufficiently convinced of the concrete value of 

 agricultural experimentation to the public to establish an experi- 

 ment station modeled on those of Europe, thus furnishing an ex- 

 ample which other States soon began to follow. The second was 

 when the Nation set its seal of approval on these stations, something 

 over twenty years after the first one had been established, and made 

 the system national by providing funds for a station in every State 

 and Territory. The third came nearly twenty years later, in the 

 passage of the Adams Act, which brought with it a new era of 

 intensive searching for fundamental truth. 



It is now thirty j^ears since the American system of stations was 

 established under the Hatch Act. It is a little more than ten years 

 since they expanded their operations as a result of the Adams Act. 

 That act passed in the spring of 1906 but had to await an appropria- 

 tion which came at the very end of the fiscal year — too late for work 

 to be started under it. Hence the year 1907 marked its beginning, 

 and it was not until four years later that the appropriation reached 

 its full amount. For only about half the time since its passage, 

 therefore, has the full appropriation been available. 



A decade is a relatively short time in which to measure an in- 

 fluence or a development in science, especially the result of research 

 activity; but the period has brought so many changes and so much 

 progress that it is perhaps worth while to consider these briefly. 

 It has been an era of great activity — one of construction and develop- 

 ment, and of large accomplishment. Ideas have been shaped, stand- 

 ards set and accepted, and foundations laid, which have premeated 

 to every State in the Union; and from these have already resulted 

 a new conception of the field and higher function of an experiment 

 station. 



From the inception of the experiment stations the question has 

 been working itself out as to what an experiment station is — its 

 peculiar field and function irrespective of special duties assigned to 



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