upon the cultivation of cereals and other plants adapted
to the latitude and climate of the state of Maryland.''
This was the first suggestion of an experiment station in
America, but resulted in little. The first experiment station
was established at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1875, partly
under state aid, partly through a gift from Orange Judd,
partly in connexion with the Sheffield Scientific School,
which from 1863 to 1892 was the College of Agriculture and
Mechanic Arts for the state of Connecticut, and partly under
control of Wesleyan University, which contributed the use
of its chemical laboratory; in 1877 it was removed to New
Haven. The state of Connecticut made in 1875 an appropriation
of $2800 (and in 1877 $5000 per annum) for this school--the
first state appropriation of the kind. The state of
North Carolina established, on the 12th of March 1877, an
agricultural experiment and fertilizer control station in
connexion with its state university. The Cornell University
experiment station was organized by that institution in
1879. The New Jersey station was organized in 1880 and the
station of the University of Tennessee in 1882. From these
beginnings the experiment stations multiplied until, when
Congress passed the National (or Hatch) Experiment Station
Act in 1887, there were seventeen already in existence. The
Hatch Experiment Station Act, so called from the fact that
its leading advocate was William Henry Hatch (1833-1896) of
Missouri, appropriated $15,000 a year to each agricultural
college for the purpose of conducting an agricultural experiment
station. The object of the stations was declared to be,
``to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the
physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they
are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the
chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages
of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as
pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new
plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water;
the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial,
with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on
crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses
and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the
different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific
and economic questions involved in the production of butter
and cheese; and such other re-searches or experiments bearing
directly on the agricultural industry of the United States
as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to
the varying conditions and needs of the respective states or
territories.'' The stations were authorized to publish annual
reports and also bulletins of progress for free distribution
to farmers. The franking privilege was given to these
publications. The office of experiment stations, in the
Department of Agriculture, was established in 1888 to be the
head office and clearing-house of these stations. Agricultural
experiment stations are now in operation in all the states and
territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the
Philippines. Alabama, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey and
New York each maintain separate stations, supported wholly
or in part by state funds; Louisiana has a station for sugar,
and Missouri for fruit experiments. Excluding all branch
stations, the total number of experiment stations in the United
States is sixty, and of these fifty-five receive the national
appropriation. The total income of the stations during 1904 was
$1,508,820, of which $720,000 was received from the national
government and the remainder was derived from societies,
fees for analyses of fertilizers, sale of products, &c. The
stations employed 795 persons in the work of administration
and re-search; the chief classes being--directors, 71;
chemists, 163; agriculturists, 47; agronomists, 41; besides
numerous horticulturists, botanists, entomologists, physicists,
bacteriologists, dairymen, weather observers and irrigation
experts. The stations publish annual reports and bulletins,
besides a large number of ``press'' bulletins, which are
reproduced in the agricultural and county papers. They act
as bureaus of information on all farm questions, and carry
on an extensive correspondence covering all conceivable
questions. Their mailing lists aggregate half a million
names. In addition to the experiment stations there is in
nearly every state an officer or a special board whose duty is
to look after its agricultural interests. Eighteen states, one
territory, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands have a single
official, usually called the Commissioner of Agriculture.
Twenty-six states, one territory and Hawaii, have Boards of
Agriculture. Information concerning the Agricultural Department
of the United States will be found under AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF.
See the articles on the various sorts of crops; also CATTLE,
HORSE, PIG, SHEEP, &c.; DAIRY AND DAIRY-FARMING,
HORTICULTURE, FRUIT AND FLOWER-FARMING, POULTRY AND
POULTRY FARMING; SOIL, GRASS AND GRASSLAND, MANURE,
DRAINAGE OF LAND, IRRIGATION, SOWING, REAPING,
HAY AND HAY MAKING, PLOUGH, HARROW, THRESHING.
LITERATURE.---Besides the contemporary works cited in the
text, see the article ``Agricultural'' in Smith's Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), and the article
``Agriculture'' in J. A. Parral's Dictionnaire d'Agriculture
(1885-1892); R. E. Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English
Farming (1888); sections on agriculture by W.J. Corbett,
R. E. Prothero and W. E. Bear in Traill's Social England
(1901-1904); J. E. T. Rogers, History of Agriculture and
Prices in England from 1259 to 1793 (7 vols., 1866-1902);
W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce
During The Early and Middle Ages (2 vols., 1905 and
1907); D. M`Donald, Agricultural Writers from Sir Walter of
Henley to Arthur Young, 1200-1800 (London, 1908); H. Rider
Haggard, Rural England, 2 vols. (1902); Encyclopedia of
Agriculture, ed. by C. E. Green and D. Young (Edinburgh,
1907-1908); Cyclopaedia of American Agriculture, ed.
by L. H. Bailey (New Yorkand London, 1907-1908); W. S.
Harwood, The New Earth (New York, 1906); T. B. Collins,
The New Agriculture (New York, 1906); Journals of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England and other agricultural
societies. Amongst general works on practical agriculture the
following may be mentioned:--Stephens's Book of the Farm, 5
vols., revised by J. Macdonald (Edinburgh, 1908).; William
Fream, Elements of Agriculture (London, 1905); Rural Science
Series, ed. by L. H. Bailey (New York and London, 1895,
&c.); Morton's Handbooks of the Farm (London); R. Wallace,
Farm Livestock of Great Britain (Edinburgh, 1907); Youatt's
Complete Grazier, rewritten by W. Fream (London, 1900); E.
V. Wilcox, Farm Animals (New York, 1907). (W. Fr.; R. Tr.)
1 Translation by Clement-Mullet (Paris, 1864).
2 Walter of Henley mentions six bushels per acre as a satisfactory crop.
3 This process of enclosure must be distinguished from that of enclosing
the arable common fields which, though advocated by Fitzherbert in
a passage quoted below, proceeded slowly until the 18th century.
4 During the 16th century wheat had risen in price,
and between 1606 and 1618 never fell below 30s. a
quarter. At the same time wages remained low.
5 Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 732.
6 The higher yield of wheat in the later years of the 19th
century appears to be largely attributable to better grain-growing
seasons. The yields in the experimental wheat-field at
Rothamsted--where there is no change either of land or of
treatment--indicate this. The following figures show the
average yields per acre of the selected plots at Rothamsted
over six 8-yearly periods from 1852 to 1899, and afford evidence
that the higher yield of later years is due to the seasons:--
Bushels (of 60lb)
Averages of--- per acre.
8 years 1852-1859 . . . . . . . . 28 3/8
8 years 1860-1867 . . . . . . . . 28 7/8
8 years 1868-1875 . . . . . . . . 27 1/8
8 years 1876-1883 . . . . . . . . 25 1/4
8 years 1884-1891 . . . . . . . . 29 7/8
8 years 1892-1899 . . . . . . . . 30
------------------ --------
32 years 1852-1883 . . . . . . . . 27 3/8
16 years 1884-1899 . . . . . . . . 30
------------------ --------
48 years 1852-1899 . . . . . . . . 28 1/4
The average of the first thirty-two years was thus
27 3/8 bushels per acre, of the last sixteen years 30
bushels, and of the whole forty-eight years 28 1/4 bushels.
7 See J.B. Lawes and J.H. Gilbert, Rothamsted Memoirs on
Agricultural Chemistry and Physiology, 7 vols. (1893-1899);
A. D. Hall, Books of the Rothamsted Experiments (1905).
8 including Channel islands and Isle of Man.
9 In 1903 two of the principal sources of supply of mutton shipped
in excess of their exportable surplus, for which they suffered
severely in 1904--hence the somewhat irregular movements after 1903.
10 Returns for only ten months were available for this year.
11 In the absence of experiments it is assumed that
wheat is digested like other foods of the same class.
12 This sum was furnished out of a total of L. 693,851, forming
the residue grant allocated for the purposes of education
to the various county councils of England and Wales
under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890.
13 ``Unimproved'' land includes land which has never
been ploughed, mown or cropped and also land once
cultivated but now overgrown with trees or shrubs.
14Includes farms operated by owners, part-owners and tenants, and managers.
15Tenants of farms rented for a share of the products.
16 The demand for horses for the British
troops in South Africa affected these years.
17 Decrease due to a severe frost in the winter of
1898-1899, which destroyed the peach crop in most of the states
AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF. The Board of Agriculture andFisheries,
in England, owes its foundation to the establishment of a
veterinary department of the privy council in 1865, when the
Country was ravaged by cattle plague. An order in council
abolished the name ``veterinary department'' in 1883 and
substituted that of ``agricultural department,'' but no
alteration was effected in the work of the department, so far
as it related to animals. In 1889 the Board of Agriculture
(for Great Britain) was formed under an act of parliament
of that year, and the immediate control of the agricultural
department was transferred from the clerk of the privy council
to the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, where it remains.
A minister of agriculture had for years been asked for in the
interests of the agricultural community, and the functions
of this Office are discharged by the president of the
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, whose appointment is a
political one, and may or may not carry with it a seat in the
cabinet. The board consists of the lord president of the
council, the five principal secretaries of state, the first
lord of the treasury, the chancellor of the exchequer, the
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and the secretary for
Scotland. The establishment consists of a president, secretary,
assistant secretaries, &c. The salary of the president is
L. 2000 a year, and that of the secretary L. 1500 a year.
The Board of Agriculture on its establishment took over from the
