610 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



of a few experimental farms or fields, which for the most part are for 

 the purpose of conducting- culture and demonstration experiments. 



Among the agencies for local and cooperative experiments various 

 agricultural societies and organizations are prominent, which through 

 their efforts alone or with the assistance of government funds provide 

 for local trials or cooperative experiments of a quite simple order. 

 Such experiments are carried on quite extensively under the county- 

 council S3"stem of England and under the department of agriculture in 

 Ireland. 



The most extensive series of cooperative experiments which have 

 been brought to light, and they do not belong to the class mentioned 

 above, are those in feeding dairy cows in Denmark, which were begun 

 by Professor Fjord in 1872 and are still being carried on by the labo- 

 ratory of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College at Copenha- 

 gen. The same institution also has charge of the butter exhibitions, 

 which in a sense are cooperative. These exhibitions entail an annual 

 expenditure of about $17,000, but they have been instrumental in 

 improving the average quality of the butter and developing a large 

 export trade. 



The systems of management and sources of revenue of the foreign 

 stations present a great variety of conditions. In the majorit}^ of 

 countries there is a central directing or supervisory agency, by which 

 the government funds are administered. This central control is quite 

 general in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British West 

 Indies, France, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In 

 these countries the administrative agencies are the state departments 

 or ministries of agriculture. In parts of Australia, notably in New 

 South Wales, and in New Zealand this system also prevails. In Den- 

 mark, the Government directs many of the agencies for the promotion 

 of agriculture through the Royal Danish iVgricultural Societ}'; in Hol- 

 land the stations are under the general management of a committee 

 appointed by the Crown, and in Russia they are in part under the 

 supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. In Great Britain there 

 can not be said to be any centralizing authority further than that 

 exerted by the board of agriculture, which distributes grants, and 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. In Germany there is no central 

 authority for the stations of the whole Empire. The Prussian stations 

 are affiliated with the Ministr}^ of Agriculture, Domains, and Forestry, 

 but there can not be said to exist in Germany any central administra- 

 tive authority in the sense that there is in France, Belgium, Hungary, 

 and other countries. 



Taken as a whole the foreign experiment stations are working in the 

 main independently of one another, there being very little coopera- 

 tion among the stations of any country or with the central department 



