54 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
ganizations it may be said that the ones most prominently active in 
promoting the Station movement in New York were the State 
Agricultural Society, the State Grange, the Central New York 
Farmers’ Club, the Elmira Farmers’ Club and the Western New 
York Horticultural Society, to which was added the strong influence 
of Cornell University. 
The first act of the Legislature establishing the Station became a 
law June 26, 1880 (Chap. 592). This law placed the management 
of the Station with a Board of Control of ten members to be made 
up of the Governor of the State, ex officio, the executive officers of 
the State Grange and the several agricultural societies and two mem- 
bers to be elected by the Board after its organization. This Board 
began its deliberations at once, holding its first meetings at Albany. 
It was inevitable that a variety of plans should be considered for 
organizing experiment station work, some of the more prominent 
of which were the creation of an independent institution with a 
farm attached, the location at Cornell University as a department 
of that institution, and the establishment of an office at Albany, the 
experimental work to be distributed among farmers in various 
parts of. the State. Wisdom prevailed and the latter plan was 
rejected. Its adoption would have defeated the real objects of an 
experiment station. The final decision was in favor of an inde- 
pendent institution located on a farm. With this end in view the 
Board of Control made a public statement of its purpose and asked 
for proposals from different localities as to available farms and the 
conditions under which one could be acquired by the State. It is 
the remembrance of a member of this first Board that over one 
hundred proposals were received. A committee, consisting of 
Messrs. Barry, McCann and Woodward, finally narrowed the choice 
of a location down to three places, viz.: Geneva, Palmyra and Spen- 
cerport, and so reported to the full Board. Geneva was selected 
as the site of the new institution. Plans had so far been agreed — 
upon by February, 1881. In the meantime the Comptroller had 
rendered a decision declaring defective the law establishing the 
Station on the ground that the Board created by the law was self- 
constituted and self-perpetuating, and as the State had no control 
over it public money could not be constitutionally used to pay its 
expenses. While the Attorney-General submitted a contrary opinion 
further legislation was thus rendered advisable. A bill was pre- 
pared creating a Board of Trustees, consisting of the Governor, 
ex-officio, and nine members appointed by him. This became a law 
