ANNOUNCEMENTS. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATION. 



The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station was established 

 in accordance with chapter 294 of the Public Laws of 1885 

 "for the purpose of protection from frauds in commercial fertil- 

 izers, and from adulterations in foods, feeds and seeds, and for 

 the purpose of promoting agriculture by scientific investiga- 

 tion and experiment." 



In March, 1897, Congress passed an act establishing experi- 

 ment stations in the several states. The Maine legislature of 

 1897 accepted this grant and made the Maine Agricultural 

 Experiment Station a department of the State College or, as it 

 now is, the University of Maine. 



THE OBJECT OF THE STATION. 



The purpose of the experiment stations is defined in the act 

 of Congress establishing them as follows : 



"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; the chem- 

 ical composition of useful plants at their different stages of 

 growth; the comparative advantages 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, natural and artificial, 

 with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on 

 crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses 

 and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and 

 economic questions involved in the production of butter and 



