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71 778 AA A 30

Acts Relating to the Organization of the
Stations.

In December, 1886, the General Assembly of the State passed the following Act:

"AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL FARMS AND STATIONS.

"SECTION 1. That the Board of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to locate and establish two experimental farms and stations, to be known as the South Carolina Experimental Stations, the objects of which shall be to determine the capacity of new plants for acclimation; the manurial value of fertilizers and composts; testing the purity and vitality of seeds; examining weeds, grasses, and other plants; investigating the growth, requirements, and comparative value of different crops; studying the economic production of milk and butter: and of conducting such other tests, investigations, and experiments in the field as may bear upon questions connected with either the science or practice of agriculture. "SEC. 2. That the said Board shall, as soon after the passage of this Act as practicable, give ninety days notice in not less than three newspapers of this State that they will receive from Counties, communities, or persons, bids, or proposals to donate lands and buildings, or money, for the purpose of establishing said Experimental Farms and Stations.

"SEC. 3. That in selecting the sites of said Experimental Farms the Board may have reference to the healthfulness of locality, the adaptability of the land to represent the variety of soils in the State: Provided, That one shall be located in the Piedmont region of the State and one in the lower tier of Counties.

"SEC. 4. The Board shall employ one Director and such other employees as may be in their judgment necessary for said Stations.

"SEC. 5. That the Board of Agriculture shall take into careful consideration plans and specifications for an Agricultural and Mechanical College, together with probable or approximate cost of the same, and report the result of their investigation to the General Assembly at its next session.

"SEC. 6. That to establish said Experimental Farms and Stations the sum of ten thousand dollars, if so much be necessary, be, and is hereby, appropriated out of any funds in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and for the support and maintenance of the said Experimental Farms and Stations all moneys arising from privilege tax, or so much as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, except so much as may be necessary to defray the expenses of the Department of Agriculture."

In July, 1887, the Board of Agriculture organized the Stations, provided for in this Act, by locating the upper farm at Spartanburg

and the lower at Darlington-the people of the two Counties. in their anxiety to secure the establishment of the Stations in their midst, having submitted liberal offers-the first, 300 acres of land and $2,000 in money, the second, $5,000 in money. A Director was elected for the Stations and a Superintendent for each farm. Provision was made for the support of the Stations by an annual grant of $5,000 from the funds of the State Department of Agriculture.

In March, 1887, Congress passed an Act making provision for the establishment of experiment stations in all the States and Territories, as follows:

"AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH THE COLLEGES ESTABLISHED IN THE SEVERAL STATES UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF AN ACT APPROVED JULY 2, 1862, AND OF THE ACTS SUPPLEMENTARY THERETO.

"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and application of agricultural science, there shall be established, under direction of the college or colleges, or agricultural department of colleges, in each State or Territory established, or which may hereafter be established, in accordance with the provisions of an Act approved July 2, 1862, entitled 'An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, or any of the supplements to said Act, a department to be known and designated as an 'Agricultural Experiment Station: Provided, That in any State or Territory in which two such colleges have been or may be so established, the appropriation hereinafter made to such State or Territory shall be equally divided between such colleges, unless the Legislature of such State or Territory shall otherwise direct.

SEC. 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 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 researches 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.

"SEC. 3. That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the work of said Stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this Act. It shall be the duty of each of said Stations, annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the Governor of the State or Territory in which it is located, a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said Stations, to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

"SEC. 4. That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said Stations at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States or Territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the Station will permit. Such bulletins or reports, and the annual reports of said Stations, shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States free of charge for postage, under such regulations as the Postmaster General may from time to time prescribe.

"SEC. 5. That for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations and experiments and printing and distributing the results as hereinbefore prescribed, the sum of $15,000 is hereby appropriated to each State, to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropriations from year to year, and to each Territory entitled under the provisions of Section Eight of this Act, out of any money in the Treasury proceeding from the sales of public lands, to be paid in equal quarterly payments on the first day of January, April, July, and October in each year, to the Treasurer or other officer duly appointed by the governing boards of said colleges to receive the same, the first payment to be made on the first day of October, 1887; Provided, however. That out of the first annual appropriation so received by any Station an amount not exceeding one-fifth may be expended in the erection, enlargement, or repair of a building or buildings necessary for carrying on the work of such Station; and thereafter an amount not exceeding 5 per centum of such annual appropriation may be so expended.

"SEC. 6. That whenever it shall appear to the Secretary of the Treasury, from the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of any of said Stations that a portion of the preceding annual appropriation remains unexpended, such amount shall be deducted from the next succeeding annual appropriation to such Station, in order that the amount of money appropriated to any station shall not exceed the amount actually and necessarily required for its maintenance and support.

"SEC. 7. That nothing in this Act shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing between any of the said colleges and the Government of the States or Territories in which they are respectively located.

"SEC. 8. That in States having colleges entitled under this Section to the benefits of this Act, and having also Agricultural Experiment Stations established by law separate from said colleges, such States shall be authorized to apply such benefits to experiments at stations so established, by such States: and in case any State shall have established, under the provisions of said Act of July 2

aforesaid, an Agricultural Department or Experimental Station in connection with any university, college, or institution not distinctively an agricultural college or school, and such State shall have established or shall hereafter establish a separate Agricultural College or School, which shall have connected therewith an Experimental Farm or Station, the Legislature of such State may apply in whole or in part the appropriation in this Act made, to such separate Agricultural College or School; and no Legislature shall, by contract, express or implied, disable itself from so doing.

"SEC. 9. That the grants of moneys authorized by this Act are made subject to the legislative assent of the several States and Territories to the purpose of said grants: Provided, That payments of such instalments of the appropriation herein made as shall become due to any State before the adjournment of the regular session of its Legislature meeting next after the passage of this Act shall be made upon the assent of the Governor thereof, duly certified to the Secretary of the Treasury.

"SEC. 10. Nothing in this Act shall be held or construed as binding the United States to continue any payments from the Treasury to any or all the States or institutions mentioned in the Act, but Congress may at any time amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of this Act."

The appropriations provided for in this Act became available in December, 1887, and in the same month the General Assembly passed the following Act, accepting the grant of fifteen thousand dollars to South Carolina, and providing for the establishment of an Experiment Station in connection with the University of South Carolina :

"Be it further enacted, That the assent of the Legislature of the State of South Carolina to the purposes of the grant of fifteen thousand dollars to each of the States and Territories by the Congress of the United States, according to the terms of an Act to establish Agricultural Experiment Stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an Act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the Acts supplementary thereto, approved March 2d, 1887, is hereby expressly declared, and the grant is accepted according to the terms of said Act. And it is further enacted, That the grant under the provisions of said Act of 1887 is hereby vested, until the further action of the General Assembly, in the Trustees of the University of the State of South Carolina; and an ‘Agricultural Experiment Station' shall be established in connection with and under the direction of said college, to be supported by said grant, according to the provisions of said Act."

In January, 1888, the Board of Trustees of the University, in pursuance of the directions of this Act, established the new station at Columbia. By the joint action of the Board of Trustees of the University and the State Board of Agriculture the State and Hatch Stations were consolidated in March of the same year, and the three experimental farms placed under the same direction and management. The arrangement gave the Stations three farms, situated in differ

ent agricultural belts of the State, a centrally located scientific staff, and an annual income of $20,000; $15,000 from the Hatch Fund and $5,000 from the State Department of Agriculture.

In December, 1889, the General Assembly passed an Act establishing the Clemson Agricultural College at Fort Hill, in the northwestern corner of the State.

Section 2 of this Act provides as follows: "That the annual grant of fifteen thousand dollars, commonly known as the Hatch Bill Fund, made to the State of South Carolina by the Congress of the United States, according to the terms of an Act of Congress entitled 'An Act to establish Agricultural Experiment Stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an Act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the Acts supplementary thereto,' approved March 2d, 1887, be, and the same shall be, on, or as soon after the first day of November, 1890, as this Act shall take effect, withdrawn from the control of the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina, in whom it was vested by an Act entitled 'An Act to amend Chapter XX. of the General Statutes, entitled "Of the University of South Carolina,” approved December 22d, 1887.' And the said grant of fifteen thousand dollars is hereby vested in the six members of the Board of Trustees of the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, chosen by the General Assembly; and an Agricultural Experiment Station shall be established in connection with the said Agricultural College, and under the direction of the Board of Trustees thereof, to be supported by the said grant according to the provision of the Act of Congress herein before mentioned."

Under the operations of this Act the University Agricultural Experiment Station at Columbia will be discontinued next November and a new station (to be supported by the Hatch fund) under different control and management established at Fort Hill.

The office of the director and laboratories of the members of the scientific staff of the stations are located in Science Hall of the University at Columbia.

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