6 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
it was swamps and morasses, wholly given over to wolves and 
bears. To-day those sandy plains and those trackless swamps are 
the gardens of Europe. 
To-day, in the German Empire alone, there are 184 agricultural 
experiment stations wholly devoted to the development of what 
Washington truly declared to be the noblest occupation of man. 
In England one man established, and for forty-five years has 
maintained with a permanent endowment of $500,000, an agricultu- 
ral experiment station at Rothamstead. It would take a day to 
recount the valuable service which this institution has rendered 
to English agriculture. In brief, it may be said that, within 
the past thirty years, the average yield of crops in England has 
been almost trebled. 
To-day there is not a reasonable doubt that with no increase 
of labor, but simply with increased intelligence, the agricultural 
productions of the Empire State may be within ten ide doubled 
and the profits increased ten-fold. 
The following statement has been prepared by a member of 
the Board of Control of the Station who has been personally 
acquainted with the works of the Station since its establishment. 
The Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva was organized 
about six yearsago. The property belonged to a deaf-mute who 
had no skill in farming, and no conception of the economy of 
keeping the premises and buildings in proper repair. Atthe price 
which the State paid for this property, $5,000 to $10,000 might 
have properly been set aside for putting the farm in proper condi- 
tion, as would have been done if the property had been pur- 
chased by a gentleman farmer of pecuniary resources. But Dr. 
Sturtevant deemed it best to ask at that time for no money 
beyond the allowance required for the fitting up of rooms and 
providing of implements and scientific apparatus, and the 
employment of competent professors in the various departments 
of scientific agriculture, a limited supply of tools and agricultural 
implements and the necessary fixtures of an ordinary farm. 
Down to the date of Dr. Sturtevant’s resignation very little 
attention was paid to the farm proper, but the results of the 
scientific experiments of the Station have proven highly import- 
ant and satisfactory to the most eminent and learned agriculturists 
of this country and Europe, and it is a significant fact that there 
is scarcely one of the corps employed at this Station who has : 

