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REGULATIONS OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT CONCERNING FREE 

 TRANSMISSION OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS. 



Section 515 of the Postal Laws and Regulations (1902) of the 

 United States relating to the free transmission of reports of agricul- 

 tural colleges reads as follows : 



Sec. 515. One copy of each of the annual reports required by law to be made to 

 the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, by such colleges as are 

 or may hereafter be established for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts 

 in the several States and Territories under the provisions of the act of July 2, 1862, 

 entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which 

 may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," and the 

 acts amendatory thereof * * * shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all 

 the other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act (of July 

 2, 1862), and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 

 Agriculture. 



2. Postmasters at offices where colleges are established under the provisions of 

 the act of July 2, 1862, will receive from the officers thereof the reports referred to 

 addressed, one copy each, to such other colleges and to the Secretary of the Interior 

 and the Secretary of Agriculture, and affix to each a penalty label or official envelope 

 of the post office, and forward the same free. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



ACT OF 1887 ESTABLISHING AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



[Hatch Act.] 



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 sixty-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 peojile 

 of the United States 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 departments 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 Territories 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 designated as an "agricultural 

 experiment station": Provided, That in any State or Territory in which two such 

 colleges have been or may be so established the appropriation hereinafter made to 

 such State or Territory shall be equally divided between such colleges, unless the 

 legislature o£ 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; tlie 

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

 parative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under the 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 tlae comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and vakie of 

 grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of 



