Abstract
THE following interesting information in reference to the establishment of agricultural experimental stations in the United States is given in a memorandum recently issued by the Agricultural Department of the Privy Council, and laid before Parliament. An “Office of Experiment Stations” has been instituted as a special branch of the United States Department of Agriculture. For the expense in connection therewith a sum of £2000 was voted by Congress in 1888, to enable the Commissioner of Agriculture to carry out Section 3 of the Act of Congress of March 1887, by which experimental stations were established. This said section provides that, “in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the work of the said stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and in general to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this Act. It shall be the duty of each such station annually, on or before February 1, to make to the Governor of the State or Territory in which it is located, a full and detailed report of its operation, including a statement of receipts and expenditure to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.” In 1888 an Act was passed by Congress making an appropriation for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and for other purposes, appropriating £119,000, including the £2000 specially reserved for the Commission of Agriculture, for the purpose of endowing and assisting agricultural and experimental stations throughout the country. Besides this sum, the several States have contributed £25,000, making a total sum of £144,000 given from public funds for the support of these stations. There are now forty-six of these stations in the United States, so that, taking an average, each station will receive over £3000 this year. It is said, however, that several of these stations have sub-stations under them, and that there are 370 trained men connected with the stations in the prosecution of scientific and practical agricultural experiments. The first agricultural experiment station in America was established in 1875 in Connecticut, and the next in California in the year following. In 1879 the well-known Cornell University Station was founded, which has done so much good work, and the equally valuable Wisconsin Station in 1883. No less than twenty-six stations were founded last year, in consequence of the inducements set forth by the Act of 1887. In a recent Report as to the organization of these experimental stations, a list of the staff of each is given, from which list a few examples may be taken to show the extent of work that is performed, or may be performed. At the Connecticut Agricultural Station there is a director who is a Master of Arts, a vice-director who is a Doctor of Philosophy, and a chemist. There are three other chemists who are Doctors or Bachelors of Philosophy, a mycologist, and a practical farmer in charge of grounds and buildings. The staff of the Dakota Station is still more extensive, consisting of a director, a superintendent of the farm, a superintendent of forestry and horticultural experiments, an entomologist, an analytical chemist, a veterinarian, an accountant and stenographer, and a librarian. Upon the staff of the Iowa Station there are two chemists, one for ordinary and one for special work, a botanist for ordinary and special work, an entomologist, a veterinarian, a horticulturist, and a practical farmer. The Cornell University Station staff comprises a chemist, veterinarian, botanist, and arboriculturist, a horticulturist, an entomologist, a cryptogamic botanist, besides an assistant in entomology, chemistry, veterinary science, and horticulture. Among the operations of these agricultural experiment stations are “fertilizer control,” or the analyses of manures, the analyses of fodder and feeding-stuffs drainage experiments, feeding experiments with farm animals, observations on milk, the determination of injurious insects, with remedies against their attacks, fruit culture experiments, drinking-water analyses, ensilage experiments, meteorology, seed-testing, analyses of soils and rocks, the culture of various plants for fodder and corn, with other useful work.
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Agricultural Experimental Stations in the United States. Nature 40, 455–456 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040455a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040455a0