 The Board of Agriculture would serve as a springboard for the 1875 creation of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at Wesleyan University in Middletown, the first in the nation; and the Storrs Agricultural School, which would serve as the foundation for the University of Connecticut.With the 1887 passage of the Hatch Act, Congress created a national system of agricultural experiment stations.In 1867, organizers formed the National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry in Washington, D.C., with a Connecticut state grange formed April 15, 1875.