These  offers  were  made  on  condition  that  the  legislature  should
appropriate  $2,800  per  annum  for  two  years  for  the  work  of  the  station.
It  was  thought  that  if  by  these  means  the  work  of  agricultural  experi-
mentation could  actually  be  begun,  the  usefulness  of  the  enterprise
would  be  so  clearly  demonstrated  that  it  would  speedily  receive  more
generous  and  permanent  support.  An  act  making  the  appropriation
thus  proposed  was  unanimously  passed,  and  approved  July  2,  1875.
Early  in  October  of  the  same  year  a  chemist  was  on  the  ground,  and  as
soon  as  practicable  two  assistants  were  secured.  Professor  Atwater
was  made  director,  and  thus  the  first  State  agricultural  experiment
station  in  America  was  an  accomplished  fact.  Notwithstanding  the
severe  financial  depression  of  1877,  which  caused  serious  reduction  in
old  appropriations  and  utter  refusal  of  new  ones  by  the  legislature  of
that  year,  a  bill  prepared  by  the  director  of  the  station  and  making  a
permanent  annual  appropriation  of  $5,000  ''to  promote  agriculture  by
scientific  investigation  and  experiment"  was  passed  unanimously.  At
the  end  of  the  two  years  provided  for  in  the  original  bill  the  station
was  reorganized  under  the  direct  control  of  the  State  and  permanently
located  in  New  Haven,  where  it  has  since  been  in  successful  operation,
until  1882  in  the  laboratory  of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  and
thereafter  in  buildings  and  on  grounds  provided  by  the  State  in  the
suburbs  of  the  city.
