708 



HORTICULTURE 



November 30, 1907 



THE BROAD OUTLOOK OF THE 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 



STATIONS. 



M Paper by Dr. A. C. True, Director, U. 

 S. OlBcc of Experiment Stations. 



The First Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. 



Little more than half a century has 

 passed since "a company of farmers 

 joined themselves together in the lit- 

 tle German village of Moeckern, near 

 the city and under the influence of the 

 University of Leipsic, called a chemist 

 to their aid and with later help from 

 government, organized the first agri- 

 cultural experiment station." Thus 

 was created a special and distinct in- 

 stitution in which scientific research 

 is organized under governmental aus- 

 pices "as a necessary and permanent 

 fcranch of agricultural business." For 

 tt is the object of the experiment sta- 

 tion "to make a regular business of 

 discovery for the use of farming," "to 

 promote agriculture by scientific in- 

 vestigation and experiment," and to 

 diffuse as well as to increase knowl- 

 edge which improves farm practice 

 and elevates farm life. 



The way for such an organization 

 had been made by the earlier re- 

 searches of such men as Liebig in 

 Germany, Boussingault in France, and 

 Lawes and Gilbert in England, mainly 

 in the domain of what is now termed 

 agricultural chemistry, and with spe- 

 cial reference to the preparation and 

 use of commercial fertilizers. By 1851 

 the time was ripe for a more definite 

 and permanent organization of agri- 

 cultural research. This was shown by 

 the rapid multiplication of agricultural 

 experiment stations in Europe. By 

 1866, or within 15 years, 30 stations 

 had been established in several coun- 

 tries. 



American Agricultural Research. 



En the United States the movement 

 am behalf of agricultural research has 

 a history similar to that of the same 

 movement in Europe. Almost as soon 

 as agricultural teaching was intro- 

 duced in American colleges, re- 

 searches in agriculture were begun. 

 This was true at Yale College, where 

 Prof. Norton began to teach agricul- 

 tural chemistry in 1846, and was fol- 

 lowed by Prof. S. W. Johnson in 1856, 

 whose studies and investigation led 

 to the publication of that great text- 

 Uook, "How Crops Grow," in 1868. 



The early agricultural colleges in 

 Michigan. Maryland, Pennsylvania and 

 elsewhere included experimental work 

 in their plans. Thus the early investi- 

 gations of such men as .Johnson, Bre- 

 ner. Manly. Miles and Hilgard, though 

 carried on as incidental to their main 

 business of teaching, laid the founda- 

 tion for the American experiment sta- 

 tions. When Congress in 1862 passed 

 the first Morrill, or land grant act, en- 

 dowing the State agricultural colleges, 

 their experimental work was recog- 

 nized in the provisions for the pur- 

 chase of "experimental farms" and an- 

 nual reports recording any experi- 

 ments made. 



By 1871 the experimental work of 

 these colleges had assumed sufficient 

 importance to warrant extended dis- 

 cussion of it, in a convention of repre- 

 sentatives from these institutions, the 

 formulation of plans for conducting 

 experiments in the different States in 



accordance with a general scheme, 

 and the appointment of a committee 

 to urge Congress to grant National 

 funds for agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions. 



The First American Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station. 



In 1875, Prof. W. O. Atwater of 

 Wesleyan University, whose death oc- 

 curred only last week, with the aid of 

 money furnished by Orange Judd, es- 

 tablished at Middletown, Conn., the 

 first American agricultural experiment 

 station organized on the German plan. 

 State aid was obtained for this sta- 

 lion, and a precedent was thus estab- 

 lished for the maintenance of such 

 stations under governmental authority 

 in this country. About the same time. 

 Prof, Hilgard organized a station at 

 the University of California. North 

 Carolina, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Mas- 

 sachusetts, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, 

 Louisiana, Alabama and other States 

 fell in line with this movement, and 

 by 1887 there were 17 stations in 14 

 States. That year Congress made the 

 enterprise national by the passage of 

 the Hatch Act, and by 1889, 46 sta- 

 tions had been organized in the United 

 States. 



Among the men whose work as sta- 

 tion directors made possible the na- 

 tionalization of this movement were 

 Atwater and Johnson in Connecticut, 

 Goessmann in Massachusetts, Stubbs 

 in Louisiana, Cook in New Jersey, 

 Sturtevant in New York, Henry in 

 Wisconsin, Jordan in Maine, and 

 Dabney in North Carolina. These 

 men had scientific training and the 

 scientific spirit. They laid the founda- 

 tions of the American experiment sta- 

 tions in scientific research and made 

 possible the broad and strong organi- 

 zation of these stations as scientific 

 institutions in close touch with prac- 

 tical workers in agriculture. 



The Early Work. 



In Massachusetts, the early work of 

 Prof. Goessmann was a very important 

 factor in demonstrating the success of 

 the experiment station as an agency 

 for the promotion of agriculture. 

 Among other things, he organized the 

 first State service for the inspection of 

 fertilizers, and made a practical dem- 

 onstration of the feasibility of beet- 

 sugar production in the United States. 

 At the outset the work of the stations 

 related chiefly to the composition and 

 use of fertilizers, with some compara- 

 tively simple field tests of different 

 crops and feeding experiments with 

 animals. Gradually, however, the 

 scope of their work was enlarged to 

 cover many other agricultural prob- 

 lems. 



In the Hatch Act a broad basis was 

 laid for the operations of the Ameri- 

 can stations by the provision "that it 

 shall be the object and duty of said 

 experiment stations to conduct orig- 

 inal researches or verify experiments 

 on the physiology of plants and ani- 

 mals, the diseases to which they are 

 severally subject, with the remedies 

 of the same; the chemical composition 

 of useful plants at their different 

 stages of growth; the comparative ad- 

 vantages of rotative cropping as pur- 

 sued under the varying series of 

 crops; the capacity of new plants and 

 trees for acclimation; the analysis of 

 soils and water; the chemical com- 



position of manures, natural or arti- 

 ficial, with experiments designed to 

 test their comparative effects on 

 crops of different kinds; the adapta- 

 tion and value of grasses and forage 

 plants; the composition and digestibil- 

 ity of the different kinds of food for 

 domestic animals; the scientific and 

 economic questions involved in the 

 production of butter and cheese; and 

 such other researches or experiments 

 bearing directly on the agricultural in- 

 dustry of the United States as may in 

 each case be deemed advisable, having 

 due regard to the varying conditions 

 and needs of the respective States and 

 Territories." Practically, then, the 

 work of our stations may properly 

 cover the entire field of agriculture in 

 the comprehensive modern sense of 

 that term, and with the growth of 

 their resources they are taking in 

 more and more of this territory. 



The Broad Outlook. 



In considering the broad outlook of 

 the agricultural experiment stations, I 

 therefore invite your attention, first, 

 to the range of their work involved in 

 the term agriculture as the science 

 and art of tilling the soil, and in the 

 minds of very many people agriculture 

 is synonymous with farming. But 

 this is altogether too narrow a view of 

 agriculture. 



Comprehensively, agriculture in- 

 cludes whatever relates to the produc- 

 tion of plants and animals, which are 

 closely connected with their produc- 

 tion. Technically, agriculture may be 

 divided into Plant Production, Animal 

 Production, Agricultural Technology, 

 Rural Engineering, and Rural Eco- 

 nomics. 



Under Plant Production is included 

 whatever relates to the natural or arti- 

 ficial environments (e. g., climate, soil, 

 water, fertilizers) of useful plants, 

 their structure, composition, culture, 

 harvesting, preservation and uses, and 

 the obstructions to their growth, pres- 

 ervation or use. Plant Production 

 may be subdivided into Agronomy, 

 which deals with what are commonly 

 called field or farm crops; Horticul- 

 ture, which deals with vegetables, 

 fruits and ornamental plants, espe- 

 cially as grown in gardens, small 

 plantations or parks; and Forestry, 

 which deals with trees and shrubs 

 grown in large tracts. 



Animal Production includes what- 

 ever relates to the anatomy, physiol- 

 ogy, zoological relations, domestica- 

 tion, types and breeds, breeding, feed- 

 ing, hygiene, management and uses 

 of useful plants. It may also include 

 diseases and other impediments to the 

 production of animals, i. e.. Veterinary 

 Medicine, though this is in itself a 

 large and distinct body of knowledge. 



Agrotechny includes whatever re- 

 lates to the conversion of raw ma- 

 terials produced in agriculture into 

 manufactured articles for use in com- 

 merce and the arts. It may also in- 

 clude the processes of handling these 

 raw materials in connection with their 

 commercial uses, as in the case of 

 milk and cream sold for consumption. 

 It also involves whatever relates to 

 departure from standards set for man- 

 ufactured articles, i. e., adulterations 

 and sophistications, in somewhat the 

 same way that the diseases of plants 

 and animals are related to Agronomy 

 and Zootechny. Agrotechny is nat- 



