76 HISTORICAL SKETCH

bers of the staff upon Maryland agricultural topics. In this connection
may be mentioned the establishment by an act of Legislature, in 1896,
of a Department of Farmers' Institutes at the College and Station.
The work of this department is fairly under way, and in the 24 meet-
ings which have been held during the past winter in various parts of
the state, most gratifying success has been met with. By the orga-
nization of this department the College has greatly increased its sphere
of usefulness to the farmers of the state, for whose benefit it was
especially created.

THE MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.

The Experiment Station of Maryland was called into existence as a
result of an act passed by the 49th Congress and approved March 2,
1887. This act appropriated $15, 000 annually to each state for re-
search work in agricultural and kindred subjects. The act did not
directly carry an appropriation, so it did not become operative until
the 50th Congress made the necessary provision by an act approved
March 6th, that the Maryland Agricultural College should be the
beneficiary of this fund. The experiment station by this act became
a department of the College, and this connection of the College with
the Station is a matter of no little advantage to both institutions.
As above mentioned, it was so far separated from the College in 1892
as to be placed under a special director, who is immediately responsible
to the board of trustees.

The work of the Agricultural Experiment Station is defined by the
second section of the act, which is as follows:

"Sect. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment
stations 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 com-
position of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the com-
parative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under varying
series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation;
the analysis of soils and waters; the chemical composition of manures,
natural or artificial, with experiments designated to test their com-