686 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



in 1871 by F. H. Storer, the professor of agricultural chemistry in 

 the Bussey Institution, and his assistants, and the first report of their 

 work was made December 3, 1871. The earliest experiments con- 

 sisted of field tests of fertilizers upon the farm of the institution and 

 chemical analyses of commercial fertilizers. A number of bulletins 

 were published, including reports of field experiments and investi- 

 gations on hybridizing plants, the composition of feeding stuffs and 

 fertilizers, injurious fungi, and physiology. 



When the College of Agriculture of the University of Califor- 

 nia was organized it was understood that a part of its work would 

 consist of experimental inquiries. In 1870 Prof. E. S. Carr, in an 

 address at the State Fair, stated that the University proposes to fur- 

 nish the facilities for all needful experiments ; to be the station where 

 tests can be made of whatever claims attention. 



After the fund which had been established by the sale of the 

 land scrip donated to Connecticut under the act of Congress of 

 July 2, 1862, had been given to the Sheffield Scientific School of 

 Yale College, in 1863, a professor of agriculture was added to the 

 working force of that institution. It is doubtless safe to say that 

 through the influence of the professors and pupils trained in this 

 school, more than to any other single cause, is due the recognition 

 of the importance of the establishment of agricultural experiment 

 stations, first in Connecticut and subsequently throughout the whole 

 country. 



On December 17, 1873, at Meriden, Conn., at a meeting of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, the establishment of an Agricultural 

 Experiment Station was urged. A petition to the legislature for 

 this purpose failed. Upon a contribution of $1,000 from Mr 

 Orange Judd and an offer of the free use of its chemical laboratory 

 by Wesleyan University, the legislature reconsidered its decision 

 and appropriated $2,800 per annum for two years for the work of 

 the Station. Thus was established in 1875 the first State Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station in America. 



The success which attended this first attempt was sufficient to 

 attract the attention of advanced agriculturists throughout the coun- 

 try, and the example set by Connecticut was soon followed in other 

 States. March 12, 1877, the State of North Carolina established an 

 agricultural experiment and fertilizer control station at Chapel Hill 

 in connection with the State University. The Cornell University 

 Experiment Station was organized in February, 1879, by the faculty 

 of agriculture of the university, as a voluntary organization. The 

 New Jersey State Experiment Station at New Brunswick, N. J., 

 was established March 18, 1880, by an act of the State legislature 

 and connected with the scientific school of Rutgers College. 



The experiment station enterprise was called to the attention 

 of the House of Representatives in 1886 by a bill which was intro- 

 duced by William H. Hatch, of Missouri, and referred to the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture. This committee made a favorable report 

 March 3, 1886, and nearly a year later the bill was passed by Con- 

 gress, and was approved by the President March 2, 1887. The 



