Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/364

350 Legislature, however, was composed mainly of farmers, and, strange as it may seem, the prejudice and sneers against "book farming" has caused by far the larger number of like bills to fail in such bodies whenever they have appeared. So it was here, although numerous petitions had been circulated about the State and very generally signed. The following winter also much hard work was done to arouse public sentiment in favor of the project; but still the next Legislature, although confronted by an increased number of petitions, could not be prevailed upon to pass the appropriation of $8,000 a year which was asked.

At this juncture Mr. Orange Judd, who had been an enthusiastic believer in the good of such an organization, came forward and offered the use of the laboratories of Wesleyan University, on behalf of the trustees of that institution, and $1,000 on his own part, provided the Legislature would appropriate $2,800 a year, for two years, to help pay the necessary expenses. The matter being brought in this light to the Legislature, it immediately passed the necessary bill, and the first American experiment station was established, October 1, 1875, at Middletown, with Dr. W. O. Atwater, who had been an indefatigible worker for the cause, and to whom the chief credit for the station's establishment is undoubtedly due, as its first director.

The work accomplished in those first two years—accomplished under such disadvantages that only a specialist can realize them—was so helpful to the Connecticut farmers that they could but acknowledge its benefits and provide for its continuance. When the two years were ended, the annual appropriation was increased to $5,000; and the Sheffield Scientific School having offered accommodations, the experiment station was reorganized at New Haven, with Prof. Johnson in charge. Three years later the appropriation was again increased to $8,000 yearly, and a special grant of $25,000 was made to permanently establish it on land and in buildings of its own.

The experiment station thus begun has saved thousands of dollars to Connecticut. Even in the first few years of its existence it was so apparent, and could so easily be shown, that the station was yearly saving several times its cost, that it was impossible for it to remain in obscurity, even if such had been its desire. Its fame soon spread beyond the limits of its own State, and numerous deputations were received from others who desired to examine into its workings. In 1876 California followed the example of the Middletown Station. In 1877 the North Carolina Station was organized. The Cornell University Station came next; then New Jersey, New York at Geneva; Ohio, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and others; so that, when the Hatch act of March 2, 1887, passed Congress, seventeen had been organized in fourteen States.