70 
entitled at the time the act was passed, it provided that the whole of the money 
received from the sale of these lands should he invested in safe securities and 
the interest only used for the maintenance of the college referred to. 
The individual States were required to furnish the necessary land and build- 
ings for these institutions, so that the money received from the land granted 
might be preserved in full as a permanent and suhstanthil endowment fund to 
be used only for maintenance purposes. Nine million six hundred thousand 
acres of public lands were thus appropriated, from which a large fund has 
accumulated. 
During the next few years a college of agriculture and mechanic arts was 
established in accordance with the provisions of the land-grant act in nearly 
every State in the Union, the land and buildings being furnished by the State 
or by the liberality of the cities or towns in or near which these institutions 
were located. In many instances there was associated with the teaching college 
an experimental farm, where many useful lines of work were conducted. 
Experiments were carried on in connection with dairying and in the feeding of 
cattle, sheep, and swine; to test the usefulness of different fertilizers when 
applied to crops, and to ascertain the relative value of many varieties of grain, 
grasses, and other fodder crops. Varieties of fruits and vegetables were also 
tested with the object of finding out in each case the most profitable sorts for 
the farmers to grow. 
After some years of experience it was found that a teaching staff could not 
satisfactorily discharge its duties to the students and at the same time carry 
on experimental work with the care and thoroughness which its importance 
demanded. The teaching was imperative, as the students were gathered pri- 
marily for instruction. The experimental work was taken up as opportunity 
offered, and under such conditions satisfactory progress could seldom be made. 
At the same time the importance of experimental work pressed on the minds of 
those who realized how much might thus be done to help the working farmer. 
Then separate experiment stations began to be organized whose officers were to 
give their whole time and attention to this work, and the advantages attending 
this course were soon manifest. Public opinion favored the extension of such 
work, and in 1887 the Hatch bill was passed by the United States Congress, 
which, by a liberal yearly grant from the Federal Treasury, provided for the 
support of a well-organized experiment station in each State and Territory in 
the Union. 
These stations were rapidly organized, and with the further aid of State 
appropriations were soon actively engaged in many useful lines of experi- 
ments bearing on the upbuilding of agriculture. During the seventeen years 
which have since passed a vast fund of useful information has been accumulated 
and given to the farming public in reports and bulletins, and the practice of 
agriculture has thus been assisted in every direction. With a small army of 
workers engaged in the attempt to solve the various problems which prove a 
hindrance to the farmer, progress has been rapid, and in every line of agricul- 
tural work, conducted under all the varying conditions of climate found in this 
country, patient investigators have made numerous experiments with the laud- 
able object of finding out how the practice of farmers might be improved and 
the profits of their business increased. Toward this end the teaching colleges 
have also lent their influence and aid. The country may well feei proud of 
these excellent institutions, which have been established on so permanent a 
basis, and the representatives of both these useful organizations, assembled here 
to confer together and to discuss matters bearing on the welfare of agriculture, 
should feel gratified at the high position to which experimental agriculture has 
attained in the United States. 
It would be unpardonable were I to fail to refer to the great work which the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington has done to stimulate the progress of 
agriculture. Much of this work has been of a highly scientific character and 
much of it thoroughly practical. The liberality which the country has shown 
in the increase of appropriations made for this purpose is remarkable, and, as 
far as I know, without a parallel. The sum appropriated in 1886 for defraying 
all the expenses connected with all branches of the work carried on by the 
Department was $408,810, while in 1003 it amounted to the enormous sum of 
S5.013.9G0. In the meantime the number of officers in the main divisions of the 
work has been largely increased and the divisions subdivided. Many new lines 
of work have been taken up and investigations conducted in nearly every part 
of the United States and its colonies. 
