102 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



in 1863) and u lessee of its farm at Moclcern. Crusius was a lirni 

 beliov(M- in the importance of chemical investigation to aoTicultnre, 

 and had already erected a laboratory on his own account. 



Through the influence of these uien plans were laid for the establish- 

 ment of a station, to ])e located on the farm of the Leipzig- P^conomic 

 Society and the adjoining lands of Dr. ('rusius. The Saxon govern- 

 ment committed itself to the undertaking and promised an appropria- 

 tion for its maintenance, and the Leipzig Economic Society agreed to 

 assume the expense of iitting up the tirst laboratory building. In 

 Octo})er, 1850, it was announced that Dr. Emil Wolff, then an instructor 

 in the agricultural school at Brosa, had been selected for director; and 

 in the f()lh)wing January he entered upon his new duties with the 

 practical agriculturist Rahr, formerly administrator of the society's 

 farm, as an associate. A year and a half elapsed, however, before the 

 State government made an appropriation for the station, and it was 

 not until Deceiuber 28, 18,53, that the institution was definitely estab- 

 lished. In the meantime it was maintained by private means, largely 

 supplied by Dr. C-rusius. 



This year, accordingly, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the station 

 as a State institution. The act of its establishment defines its purpose 

 to be "to extend the knowledge of the practice of agriculture and the 

 industries connected with it by means of scientific investigation, closely 

 associated with practical experiments of various kinds, and to dis- 

 seminate the useful results thus obtained." The programme laid out 

 for it in this act covered the whole field of agricultural experimenta- 

 tion, ])ut it was naturally found necessary to confine operations within 

 a comparativ(dy I'cstricted field. 



Wolfi' remaincnl as director only three years, when he was called to 

 the Agricultural Academy at Hohenheim, where he remained to the 

 close of his life. He was followed by Dr. H. Ritthausen, later a 

 prominent authority on albuminoids, who left after two ^x^ars to estab- 

 lish a new station; and he in turn was followed by Dr. Wilhelm Knop, 

 who remained ten years. On the hitter's call to the chair of agricul- 

 tural chinnistry in the University of Leipzig, Dr. Gustav Kiihn, a 

 pupil of Henneberg's and at that time director of the experiment sta- 

 tion at Brunswick, assmued the directorshij). Kiihn remained at the 

 head of the station for nearly 25 years, from 1867 to 1892, when he 

 died. The following year the present director was appointed. 



Although the Mockern Station has been since 1867 primarily a sta- 

 tion for investigation in animal physiology, it now" embraces four 

 additional divisions, each presided over by a separate officer, one for 

 the analysis of fertilizers, another for the examination of feeding 

 stufi's, agricultural products, waters, etc., a third for soil studies, for 

 judging of the quality of soils, their cultural relations, laying out of 

 estates, etc., and a fourth for vegetation experiments, to study the far- 



