CHEMISTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 197 
tance of chemical research to all the greater industries of the 
world, it should receive fuller recognition by the National 
Government and be encouraged most liberally.* 
I have already referred to the land-grant college act of 1862, 
under which so many agricultural and technical schools came 
into existence. In 1887 Congress passed another act, inti¬ 
mately related to the former, by which the States and Ter¬ 
ritories were each granted the annual sum of fifteen thousand 
dollars for the maintenance of agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tions. These stations, some of which have other resources 
also, are actively at work, and they receive some coordina¬ 
tion under a bureau of the Federal Department of Agricult¬ 
ure. Chemistry receives a part of their attention, and in 
1894 one hundred and twenty-four chemists were employed 
in them. These chemists and those connected with the 
Washington laboratory are'bound together in the Associa¬ 
tion of Official Agricultural Chemists, which meets annually. 
A prime object of that association is the improvement, defi¬ 
nition, and standardizing of analytical methods, and along 
this line it has done admirable work. The data obtained in 
the different experiment stations are thus rendered strictly 
comparable, and a higher degree of accuracy is reached than 
would have been attained under conditions of absolute indi¬ 
vidualism. The association fills a distinct place of its own, 
and is in no sense a rival of the American Chemical Society. 
Indeed, the members of the official body are nearly all mem¬ 
bers of the other. 
In the industrial field, as well as in the domain of pure 
science, the chemists of the United States have made rapid 
advances during the past thirty years. In manufacturing 
chemistry the growth has been only moderate—at least in 
comparison with the growth of other industries—but still it 
* For a fuller discussion of this part of the field I may refer to my own 
address upon “The relations of the Government to Chemistry,” published 
in the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Washington, No. 1, 1886. In 
that paper the chemical work of the Government is described with con¬ 
siderable detail. 
