Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/110

102 not only furnish the basis for improving the existing methods of irrigation and for framing more equitable laws, but they indicate the lines along which investigation should be directed.

year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in the United States. Beginning with a single station in Connecticut in 1875, the number has steadily grown until to-day we have a system of experiment stations embracing every State and Territory in the Union. The history of this movement and the present status of the stations is the subject of an interesting and attractive volume of over six hundred pages, prepared by Dr. A. C. True, director of the Office of Experiment Stations, and Mr. V. A. Clark, assistant, and published by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is a comprehensive account of the evolution and development of the experiment station enterprise; the organization, lines of work and equipment of the stations; some of the more striking results of practical application which they have attained; and a description of each of the fifty-six stations individually. These latter descriptions are illustrated by one hundred and fifty-three plates, showing the buildings, fields, laboratories, herds, etc., of the different stations. The greatest impulse to the station movement was given by the passage of the Hatch Act, in 1887, providing for the establishment of experiment stations in connection with the land-grant colleges, and appropriating $15,000 a year to each State and Territory for their maintenance. At that time there were some twelve stations, a part of which received regular State appropriations. During 1888 stations sprang into existence rapidly all over the country, and in a surprisingly short time these stations had justified the expectations of their advocates and proved their usefulness to the agriculture of the country.

During the past ten years more than ten million dollars have been expended in their maintenance, seven million of which has come from the Federal Government. Dr. True reviews the manifold benefits which have come from their operations, and points out their value in (1) the introduction of new agricultural methods, crops or industries, and the development of those already existing; (2) the removal of obstacles to agriculture, such as diseases of plants and animals, injurious insects and other natural enemies; (3) the defense of the farmer against fraud in the purchase of fertilizers, feeding stuffs, insecticides and in other ways; (4) aiding in the passage and administration of laws for the benefit of agriculture; and (5) in an educational way. Brief as this summary necessarily is, it brings out very forcibly the wide range of usefulness of the experiment stations to the farming community, touching nearly every phase of agricultural operation, and their very potent influence in arousing widespread interest in the various forms of agricultural education. "The stations are not only giving the farmer much information which will enable him to improve his practice of agriculture, but they are also leading him to a more intelligent conception of the problem with which he has to deal, and of the methods he must pursue to successfully perform his share of the work of the community and hold his rightful place in the commonwealth." One large result of the educational work of the stations has been the general breaking down of the popular conception that agriculture is not capable of improvement through systematic and progressive researches in its behalf conducted on scientific principles. "There is now in this country a much keener appreciation than heretofore of the fact that the problems of agriculture furnish adequate opportunity for the exercise of the most thorough scientific attainments and the highest ability to penetrate the mysteries of nature."

Considered merely as organizations for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, the stations have attained