OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 85 



FOUNDER OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 

 STATIONS 



27. The man who first appreciated in a concrete and con- 

 structive way the effect of local conditions in the application 

 of agricultural knowledge, was William Henry Hatch, origina- 

 tor an4 proponent of the act that founded the agricultural experi- 

 ment stations. He was a man of varied interests and many-sided 

 personality, but through it all ran a warm sympathy that turned 

 him to rural interests always, in spite of an eventful public life. 



Mr. Hatch was born in Georgetown, Ky., Sept. 11, 1833, of 

 New England parentage. During his early years he displayed 

 a pastoral disposition, and was vitally concerned with all things 

 connected with farm and animal life. For forty years his inter- 

 ests were grounded in his own acres, and his public career was 

 characterized by a constructive insight into the rural, social, 

 and economic structure. His school life at Georgetown and 

 Lexington, Ky., was very brief, and he early went to Richmond, 

 Ky., where he secured employment in a drug store and studied 

 law in the office of Judge Turner. At the age of twenty-one, 

 he was admitted to the bar, but soon removed to Missouri, where 

 four years later he was ma^de attorney in the circuit court of 

 the sixteenth judicial district for two terms. 



His second term was interrupted by his commission as captain 

 in the Confederate army in 1862. The following year he was 

 appointed commissioner in charge of the exchange of prisoners. 

 He was stationed at Richmond, Virginia, and was so considerate 

 in the discharge of his duty that he was endeared by friend an<l 

 foe alike. About this time he was promoted to a lieutenant- 

 colonelcy. 



In 1878, Col. Hatch was elected to Congress, where he served 

 for sixteen years. He was here the author of numerous bills 

 of agricultural importance. In addition to the experiment sta- 

 tion bill already mentioned, he fathered the oleomargarine law 



