8 



for the first experiment station to be established in this country in 

 connection with an agricultural college, and the second station to be 

 incorporated in the United States. The first was incorporated by 

 Connecticut at New Haven, and the second by Massachusetts at 

 Amherst. 



These two stations were afterwards consolidated with the govern- 

 ment stations, and along with forty-two others, one in each state, 

 were endowed under the Hatch bill, and are now known as the Hatch 

 Experiment Stations. But to Johnson and Atwater, of Connecticut, 

 among the greatest of living agricultural chemists, and to Stock- 

 bridge and Clark, of Massachusetts, the wisest of practical educa- 

 tors, belongs the credit of inaugurating this great educational move- 

 ment. Out of it, also, has grown the enlarged and vigorous Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington, which in connection with the 

 stations and the agricultural colleges is doing yeoman's service for 

 the advancement of knowledge. These stations and the agricultural 

 colleges, each supplementing the other — the one to develop men and 

 the other to develop methods — may well be considered the renais- 

 sance of our new agriculture. 



I want to mention another personal recollection. In one of his 

 lectures— or talks, as he liked to call them — the question of the large 

 personal fortunes that were beginning to pile up was under discus- 

 sion. He, as you all know, was very democratic in his feelings, in- 

 clined to side with the under dog, whether the dog was right or 

 wrong. He regretted the advantage which the crafty and unscrupu- 

 lous were taking of the people and of the laws of the people, in 

 amassing wealth in lawful, but, as he thought, improper ways. And 

 I remember his flashing out one day with this remark : 



"No man has a right to more than a stated amount of property, a 

 million if you please. If he amasses more than the allotted amount 

 he should yield up the excess to the state. The prizes should be 

 divided more equally and distributed more widely." 



When asked how he would accomplish it, he replied : 



" Through the probate court, through which all estates must pass 

 sooner or later, or by some other effective means." 



I suppose he meant that if a man's estate was found by official 

 appraisal to be more than the allotted amount he would have the 

 excess pass to the government, and thus he would hope to check 



