10 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



the prosperity of agriculture in almost every country, that the inves- 

 tigation and experiment needed for the progress of farming in any 

 given country has come to be acknowledged as work properly under- 

 taken at public expense and under the xiirection of the state. The 

 only question which appears to be open for discussion in this connec- 

 tion is as to the best provisions for that experimental work which is 

 recognized as essential to the progressive agriculture of our times. 



Institutions for this purpose, generally known as agricultural ex- 

 periment stations, have been established and supported by public 

 funds, some for nearly thirty years in many parts of Europe, and for 

 a shorter time in several of the United States. The "station " is sim- 

 ply a comparatively new and improved method of conducting agri- 

 cultural experiments. It is a place where discovery for the benefit 

 of farming is made a regular business, with complete equipment, and 

 managed by competent men. These establishments have become so 

 valuable and popular in Europe, that they have rapidly increased in 

 number, until there are now about one hundred and forty in operation. 



Agricultural experiment stations in this country have been estab- 

 lished in nine States, in the following order: Connecticut and North 

 Carolina in 1877; New Jersey, 1880; New York, Ohio, and Massa- 

 chusetts, 1882; Wisconsin and Alabama, 1883, and Maine in 1885. 

 These are all distinctly independent institutions, with their own or- 

 ganizations, and supported by State appropriations or special tax. 

 Some, however, are located at State agricultural colleges, and oflB.cered 

 by the college professors. These stations differ greatly in their or- 

 ganization, facilities, and work. Some are required to control the 

 business in commercial fertilizers in their respective States, while 

 others do nothing of this kind. In New Jersey and North Carolina 

 at least $10,000 is expended yearly, mainly in laboratory work and 

 the publication of results, although land is somewhat used in New 

 Jersey. In Alabama and Wisconsin large areas of land are used — 

 100 acres or more; in Ohio, 25 acres; and in New York about 125 acres. 



In several other States there are provisions made for systematic 

 experiment work at the agricultural colleges and State universities 

 by appropriations from college funds and the assignment of pro- 

 fessors to this duty. In some cases the results are becoming very 

 valuable, at least locally, while in others the efforts are feeble and 

 uncertain. 



Other States and colleges are considering the inauguration of ex- 

 perimental inquiry, and efforts in this direction are apparently lim- 

 ited only by lack of means. Experimental agriculture is expensive. 

 It means constant outlay for the good which will come of it, and the 

 greater the outlay the more valuable the returns. An experiment 

 station is a place to spend money systematically, judiciously, with no 

 apparent return, but always for the purpose of ultimately saving 

 much more. And this saving, being in the production of the neces- 



