THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



state universities or agricultural colleges, and 

 very largely the station staffs are made up 

 from the college faculties. I do not know 

 that I can, in any way, present a clearer view 

 of the scope of the stations, than by giving 

 the outline of their prospective work under 

 the act establishing them, though the needs of 

 the various states along particular lines fre- 

 quently call for independent investigations in 

 directions not included in the initial provisions 

 of the government. The duties of the stations 

 are prescribed as follows : 



"To conduct original research or verify 

 experiments on the physiology of plants and 

 animals ; the diseases to which they are sever- 

 ally subject, with the remedies for the same; 

 the chemical composition of useful plants at 

 their different stages of growth ; the compara- 

 tive advantages of rotative cropping as pursued 

 under a varying series of crops ; the capacity 

 of new plants for acclimatization ; the analysis 

 of soils and water; the chemical composition 

 of manures, natural or artificial, with experi- 

 ments designed to test their comparative ef- 

 fects on crops of different kinds ; the adaptation 

 and value of grasses and forage plants; the 



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