Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station

The Agricultural Experiment Station was established in College Park, Maryland in 1888 as a combined state agency, stockholder institution, and Maryland Agricultural College department. The 1887 Hatch Act provided $15,000 per year for an experiment station at all land grant institutions, and the college contributed the college farm and the Rossborough Inn.

The purpose of experiment stations was to use the resources of science to improve the practice and profitability of agriculture, and with the aid of the government, become a necessary branch of the agriculture business. Its immediate function was to conduct investigations into the agricultural problems that most concerned farmers and to publish and disseminate widely the results of its research.

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