184 ANNUAL REPORT 



blished the first practical laboratory under the authority of the 

 government; and from that beginning, France has increased the 

 numbers of her stations, until she now has forty-eight of the 

 very best equipped agricultural stations in the world. 



In 1840 Baron Liebig took up this work in Germany. There 

 was not a single laboratory at that time in that empire where 

 experimental work could be undertaken; Baron Liebig was the 

 first. All the advancement made in experimental work in those 

 countries has been the work done within the past fifty years. At 

 the prcvsent time there^are in Germany alone probably over one 

 hundred stations, and every civilized nation of the world has 

 undertaken the work, and it is the best and most productive 

 line of work the nations can undertake for the benefit of agri- 

 culture. The establishment of these stations in France and Ger- 

 many have brought about results which are most surprising. 



This matter of the establishment of agricultural experimental 

 stations in the United States is of* very recent origin. The first 

 station, I think, was established in Connecticut in 1875. In I^ew 

 York stations were established, one or two of which are main- 

 tained by individual enteri^rise. We have now some twenty-five 

 or thirty independent stations, established as such, or in corrnec- 

 tion with the agricultural colleges of the country. They are 

 mainly doing efficient work, and some of them are sustained by 

 liberal appropriations. ISTew York appropriates $20,000 an- 

 nually in support of its experiment stations. The amount ap- 

 propriated for these stations in the country runs from $2,000 to 

 $20,000 per state. 



Two or three bills have been introduced in Congress within 

 the last foui' years looking to the extending of national aid to 

 the promotion of these objects. There is at the present time an 

 important measure pending known as the "Hatch Agricultural 

 Experiment Station Bill.'' It has been unanimously recom- 

 mended by both the agricultural committees of the house and 

 senate and has passed to a second reading in the senate. I hold 

 in my hand a petition bearing upon this subject which will ex- 

 plain the object of this bill. 



Prof. Porter here read a petition for the passage of the Hatch 

 Experimental Station Bill so-called and then j) resented the follow- 

 ing resolution : 



Eesolved, That the officers of this association be directed to 

 prepare, sign and forward to the senators and representatives of 

 Minnesota in the National Congress a request that they use their 



