THE EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT. 



It is proper that, in making tliis first report of a new de- 

 partment of the college, its organization and history should 

 be outlined and made a matter of permanent record. The 

 full text of the Act passed by Congress, Feb. 25, 1887, 

 under which the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College was established, is as fol- 

 lows : — 



[PuiiLic No. 112.] 



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 2, 

 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto. 



Section 1. 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 people of the United States 

 useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, 

 and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting tlie 

 principles and applications of agricultui'al science, there shall be estab- 

 lished, imder direction of the college or colleges, or agrieultm'al depart- 

 ments of colleges, in each state or territory established, or which may 

 hereafter be established, in accordance with the provisions of an act 

 approved July 2, 1862, entitled, " An Act donating jjublic lands to the 

 several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit 

 of agriculture and the mechanic ai'ts," or any of the supjilements to said 

 act, a department to be known and designated as an " agricultural 

 experiment station : " j)rovided, that in any state or territoiy 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 of such state or territory 

 shall otherwise direct. 



Sect. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment sta- 

 tions to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physi- 

 ology of plants and animals ; the diseases to which they are severally 

 subject, with the remedies for the same ; the chemical composition of 

 useful plants at their different stages of growth ; the comparative ad- 

 vantages of rotative cropping, as pursued under a varying series of 

 crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation ; the analysis 

 of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natm'al or 

 artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on 

 crops of different kinds ; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage 

 l^lants ; the comi^osition and digestibility of the different kinds of food 

 for domestic animals ; the scientific and economic questions involved in 

 the production of butter and cheese ; and such other researches or 

 experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United 



