EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XII No. i. 



The exhibits of the agricultural experiment stations of the world at 

 the Paris Exposition considered collectively constituted the most 

 extensive and instructive representation of experiment station work 

 and equipment that has ever ])een collected. They included contribu- 

 tions from most of the leadiiig countries in which experiment stations 

 are maintained, conspicuous exceptions being- Belgium, Canada, Hol- 

 land, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. The impression which might 

 have been made of the magnitude which the experiment station enter- 

 prise has assumed during the last decade and of the great diversity of 

 the interests and activities of the stations was largely obscured under 

 the system by which the exhibits were classiiied. Under this s^'stem, 

 or at least under its interpretation, the station (^xhil)its were widely 

 separated, a part placed under "agricultural experiment stations and 

 statistics," a large number under "'education." and others in the gen- 

 eral agricultural exhibits of their respective counti'ies, while still 

 others were to be found in some of the national buildings. This made 

 it extremely difficult to locate the station exhibits of ditferent coun- 

 tries and well-nigh impossible to lind all of the exhibits without read- 

 ing the entire catalogue of the exposition. This probal)ly accounts 

 for the disparity of the reports brought back by different A'isitors to 

 the exposition. 



For the most part the exhibits were individual rather than col- 

 lective. The German exhibit was designated a collective one, but was so 

 only in the sense of being brought together in the same space. The 

 exhiljit of each station, however, was kept separate from the other, and 

 various conunercial displays of apparatus, etc., were installed between 

 the exhibits of individual stations. The stations in the United States 

 had the only strictly collective exhibit, although in the case of several 

 countries the entire exhibit was made by a central station or a ministrj^ 

 of agriculture. There was good opportunit)^ to compare the relative 

 merits of the collective and the individual plans of making exhibits. 



The French exhibit as a whole was large, although it did not so 

 impres.s the observer on account of the individual and scattered plan 

 of installation. Most of the stations were represented in the educa- 

 tional section in connection with the agricultural schools or institutes 

 with which they are affiliated. In addition to photographs of fields, 



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