AGRICULTURE - EXPERIMENT STATIONS In the United States experiments were early conducted by the agricultural colleges, but not until 1875 was the first American experiment station with State support established. This was situated at Middletown, Conn., under Dr. W. O. At water, and later removed to New Haven with Dr. S. W. Johnson as director. It still survives as the oldest American station. The University of California next provided funds for a station at Berkeley, under the leadership of Dr. E. W. Hilgard. Other States soon followed, so that by 1887 there were about 18 stations, some with meagre support.
The movement for a nationally supported system Of experi ment stations culminated in the passage of an act approved on March 2, 1887, and designated the Hatch Act, in honour of its champion, Hon. William H. Hatch. It authorized an annual appropriation of $15,000 for an experiment station in connection with each of the agricultural colleges established under the Land Grant Act of 1862. This gave a marked impetus to the experi ment stations, and States which had not previously provided them promptly took advantage of the act. In 1906 the fund was supplemented by the Adams Act, designed especially to promote original scientific investigation of agricultural problems. On its maturity in 1911 this act doubled the annual Federal support. This was again enlarged in 1925 by the Purnell Act, which authorized an increase of $20,00o to each State the first year, with annual additions of $1o,000 until $6o,000 was reached and also extended the scope of research to include agricultural eco nomics, home economics and rural sociology. In addition to the grants under the two previous acts, each State will thus receive $90,00o in 193o, or an aggregate of $4,320,000. The Federal grants are liberally supplemented by State appropriations, aggre gating about three times those from the Federal Government. In Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, Guam and the Virgin islands, experi ment stations are maintained with special congressional appropria tions under the Federal Department of Agriculture. The first was established in Alaska in 1898. Experimental work in the Philippines is under the insular Government, and receives no financial support from the United States.
The Federal Department of Agriculture aids in promoting the purposes of the stations through a central office of experiment stations, which exercise supervisory control over the Federal appropriations, maintains intimate relations with the stations in all the States, has charge of the insular stations, and issues a journal, the Experiment Station Record, begun in 1889, which reviews the publications on agricultural research throughout the world. The office also publishes an annual report on the progress of the stations. There has thus been developed a comprehensive and closely knit system of experiment stations, co-operating with one another and with the Department of Agriculture, and sup ported jointly by the States and the general Government. Total appropriations for the fiscal year 1927 aggregated $12,733,000, including $233,980 for the insular stations. The stations employed 2,831 persons in administration and research, some of them only part time, in addition to clerks, labourers and temporary help. Many of the States also provide branch stations or sub-stations dealing with special enterprises, such as citrus fruits, sugar, rice, tobacco, or with the special problems of localities.
In addition to the stations receiving the benefits of the Federal Acts, a number of special stations have been provided in the States, such as the poultry and fruit stations in Missouri, the coastal plain station in Georgia, the truck station in Virginia, the institute of animal nutrition in Pennsylvania, and the stations for the sugar and pineapple industries in Hawaii. In this connection, mention should also be made of the privately supported Boyce Thompson Institute for plant research at Yonkers, N.Y., opened in 1924; the Food Research Institute at Stanford university, for studying problems connected with food supply, consumption and distribution; and the Marble Laboratory at Canton, Pa., equipped for study of fruit storage.
The State experiment stations have experimental fields and trial grounds: accommodation for experimental animals; insectariums; creameries and cheese factories ; veterinary hospitals ; and labo ratories for chemical, botanical and bacteriological study (see AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES: Agricultural Chemistry).
All the stations publish bulletins, circulars and annual reports dealing with the results of their work, and these are sent through the mails free of postage. Many popular articles are prepared for the Press, while the more technical features of research are published in appropriate scientific journals. The stations are in close contact with the farming public and with extension workers. The results of experiments are thus spread broadcast, often being applicable far beyond the boundaries of the State in which the investigations were carried on. (E. W. A.)