177 



that awricnlttiral societies exercise the most important influence in 

 their manairenient : many of the stations were established by these 

 societies and receive a considerabh' portion of their revenue from them. 

 The revenues are smaller than ours, as are salaries and other expenses. 

 A nnich larirer pi'oportion of the revenue comes from analyses of fer- 

 tilizers and other commercial products. Tn general, the German sta- 

 tions a It' more lar<it'iy en<rai>"e»l than ours in the inspection of fertil- 

 izers, feeding; stuft's. and seeds, aiul the expense of this is generally 

 borne by societies, nuinufacturing firms, or individiuils, especially in 

 the case of the fertilizer analyses. 



Among the most marked differences are the greater specialization 

 of work and the relatively larger proportion of abstract research in 

 the German stations. The individual stations confine themselves to 

 fewer subjects of investigation and study them more deeply. Rela- 

 tively more attention is given to work in the laboratory, the green- 

 house, and the stable, and less to that of the farm, garden, and orchard. 

 This is the result of long experience under the conditions of agricul- 

 tural and scientific development in which the German stations are 

 placed. In their earlier history they specialized less, and more of 

 their experimenting was done in the field, but they have learned the 

 valuable lesson that the questions which the farmers ask require the 

 most careful and oftentimes the most abstract research for their solu- 

 tion. Some of the largest and most successful of the stations were 

 established originally on farms by associations of farmers, but have 

 been transferred to the schools and universities in the cities, because 

 the practical men by whom and in whose interest they were founded 

 and are conducted have learned that in this way they do the most 

 useful work. 



It should be further noted that, besides the work of the stations 

 above enumerated, a large amount of research bearing upon agricul- 

 tural science and i)ractice is carried on in Germany in the chemical, 

 physiological, and botanical laboratories and institutes of the univer- 

 sities and agricultural schools and otherwise, as is also the case, 

 though in less degree, in the United States. 



