STATi; poMOLonicAL socie;ty. 83 



begun in 1875, has continued, and is to-day one of the best, as 

 weU as the first in point of time, of experiment stations in the 

 country. This station proved so successful that the example was 

 speedily followed elsewhere. In 1880 four were in operation, 

 and in 1887, there were some 17 of these experiment stations 

 in 14 states. Our own station was established by action of the 

 legislature of 1885. Its object, as stated in the law, being, "for 

 the purpose of protection from frauds in commercial fertilizers, 

 and from adulterations in foods, feeds and seeds, and for the pur- 

 pose of promoting agriculture by scientific investigation and 

 experiment." 



In 1887, Mr. Hatch, member of Congress from Missouri, 

 introduced a bill which has come to be known as the "Hatch 

 Act," whereby $15,000 per annum was appropriated to each of 

 the states and territories which have established agricultural 

 colleges or agricultural departments of colleges for the establish- 

 ment and maintenance of Experiment Stations. This act called 

 into existence very many new stations, so that there are to-day 

 in our country over 50 agricultural experiment stations. These 

 50 experiment stations now employ upwards of 500 trained 

 men in the prosecution of experimental inquiry. The appropri- 

 ations by the United States government for these experiment 

 stations is about $750,000 per year. The several states appropri- 

 ate enough, either directly or indirectly, to make the total sum 

 about $1,000,000 from public funds for the support of agri- 

 cultural experiment stations. This may seem like a large sum 

 to expend annually for agricultural experiment stations, but 

 it is less than 10 cents for each of the farm workers of the 

 country, and less than 2]/^ cents for each of our popula- 

 tion directly dependent upon agriculture for their support, 

 and less than 1^4 cents for each of the entire number of people 

 who consume the products of our farms. The Experiment 

 Station costs about five dollars a year for each million of dollars 

 invested in agriculture. We are spending not far from 30 

 cents for every thousand dollars worth of products on our 

 farms in the attempt to increase the value of these products in 

 future years. 



