Na/ional Scientific and Kducational Ins/ilu/ions. 343 



THE HATCH ACT. » 



[Forty-uiiith Congress, second session, chaijtcr 314, Statutes of the United States, Vol. XXIV, 



page 440.] 



AN ACT to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established 

 in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and 

 si.xty-two, and of the acts supplementary thereto. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 

 America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid in acquiring and diffusing 

 among the people of the United vStates useful and practical information on subjects 

 connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment 

 respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science, there shall be 

 established, under direction of the college or colleges or agricultural department of 

 colleges in each State or Territory established, or which may hereafter be established, 

 in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred 

 and sixty-two, entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Ter- 

 ritories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts," or any of the supplements to said act, a department to be known and desig- 

 nated as an "agricultural experiment station:" Provided, That in any State or Ter- 

 ritory in which two such colleges have been or may be so established the appropria- 

 tion hereinafter made to such State or Territory shall be equally divided between 

 such colleges, unless the legislature of such State or Territory shall otherwise direct. 



Sec. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct 

 original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; 

 the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; 

 the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the 

 comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of 

 crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and 

 water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments 

 designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation 

 and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions 

 involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches or experi- 

 ments bearing directly on the agricultural industry 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 or Territories. 



Sec. 3. That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and 

 results in the work of said stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of 

 results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of 

 inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to furnish such advice 

 and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this act. It shall be the duty of 

 each of said stations, annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the 

 governor of the State or Territory in which it is located a full and detailed report of 

 its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which 

 report shall be sent to each of said stations, to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, 

 and to the Secretary- of the Treasur}' of the United States. 



Sec. 4. That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at 

 least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the 

 States or Territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals 

 actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the 



' Introduced in the House of Representatives in 1885 by the Hon. William H, Hatch 

 of Missouri, and approved by President Cleveland, March 2, 1887. 



