REPORT ON THE STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 1959 By E. C. Elting, Deputy Administrator for Experiment Stations Agriculture is an industry marked by constant change. Consumer demands and market outlets for farm products change with the development of new uses, competitive products, nutritional findings, foreign trade, and the domestic standard of living. Farming itself is forced to make changes under influences like changing pest and weather hazards, new efficiencies in crop and livestock production, new equipment, and new technologies. The key to modern farm technology and to the progress in living standards it has stimulated is the Federal-State program of agricultural research and education. While there are other factors that are essential in achieving a balanced, progressive, prosperous agriculture, scientific research and education play a leading role. They make possible abundant production so that people can get the food and fiber they need at prices they can afford to pay. Having plenty of good, wholesome food and fiber available for working people has provided a sound underpinning for our country's industrial strength. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND PRODUCTIVITY Production records over many years illustrate how farm productivity has increased on United States farms. These increases since 1890 almost parallel the growth in agricultural research and education activities. Seventy years ago one farm worker in the United States produced enough food and fiber for 6 persons. In 1958, he produced enough for 23. Linked in close association with the U. S. Department of Agriculture's agricultural research program are the Agricultural Experiment Stations of our 50 States and of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. They serve as the main agricultural research and technical establishments in their respective States. While they are independent State-administered scientific institutions, they are also essential components of our nationwide State-Federal agricultural research system. The State-Federal agricultural research system, in which the Agricultural Experiment Stations have responsibility for all State phases of research, has made great contributions to farm productivity in the United States and, therewith, to American living standards. Scientific research conceives and develops ideas and concepts for better methods of farming, processing, and marketing of farm products. It thus provides new methods that make farming easier, more efficient, and profitable. It also finds ways whereby continued supplies of wholesome food keep flowing through marketing channels at prices that are fair to consumers. While Agricultural Experiment Station research is organized primarily to solve agriculture's most pressing problems, there have also been many byproducts in fundamental science that have paved the way for general advancement in the biological and life sciences. Some of these have helped medical research win victories over diseases like tuberculosis, brucellosis, rabies, and others. For example, the coumarin derivatives now used for preventing blood clots in humans first grew out of experiment station studies of spoiled sweetclover. Much of the great progress made in the field of antibiotics first grew out of experiment station research that had for its objective a better understanding of the nature of soil bacteria. Late in 1958, two former agricultural experiment station scientists were awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for work they did in station genetics research. Their findings are now opening a way to understanding the characteristics of some virus forms. Their research was a real pioneer accomplishment in science. The Agricultural Experiment Stations are departments of our State land-grant agricultural colleges and universities and have primary responsibility for scientific research dealing with agricultural problems arising within their States. In most States there are also branch stations or substations and field laboratories. The main station in every State has a Director in charge. He is responsible for the full program carried on both at the main station and at the branch - 1 stations. Also, while the work may be in one or several subject-matter departments of the college, such as animal husbandry, agronomy, horticulture, botany, soil science, and others, all of the research is coordinated by the Director of the main station. SOURCES OF SUPPORT The Federal-grant payments are appropriated annually by the Federal Congress to the Agricultural Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture under authorization of the Hatch Experiment Station Act of 1887, as amended in 1955. The close working relationship between Federal and State agencies under this Act has served through the years as a model for Federal-grant cooperation in agricultural research. The Federal-grant payments are only a fractional part of the moneys that support the Experiment Stations, generally less than 25 percent. They have served, in addition, to stimulate substantial support through State appropriations. The principal financial support is from Stateappropriated funds. As the agricultural research divisions of the State land-grant colleges and universities, the stations also receive private support from foundations, corporations, farmer cooperatives, commodity organizations, and other private cooperators approved by the responsible governing boards. The agricultural colleges of our land-grant institutions have three major activities, namely the resident instruction of students enrolled in agriculture, the agricultural experiment stations engaged in the research, and the agricultural and home economics extension service through which the new developments growing out of research are made known to farm people. The Experiment Station is responsible for giving the scientific research leadership. DEPARTMENT'S RESPONSIBILITY IN FEDERAL-GRANT ADMINISTRATION The Department's role in the Federal-grant research program is primarily one of service. Although it is charged with responsibility for seeing that the funds are spent as intended by Congress, a further responsibility is the technical assistance the Department is called upon to give. This assistance, which is provided by the State Experiment Stations Division of the Agricultural Research Service, includes reviews of Federal-grant research, participation in planning of regional research, and coordination of research effort among the States as well as between the States and the Department. Records of some 12, 000 Federal-grant and State-supported projects are maintained in the Division. These review and coordinating services help both the State Experiment Stations and the Department to avoid duplication of effort, to recognize gaps that need to be filled, and to plan and carry out a more effective Federal-State program of agricultural research. In addition to this active pattern of close working relationships between the Department and the State stations, which has existed for over 70 years, there is also close cooperation in many other ways as through cooperative employees, direct support of certain projects, recruitment of personnel, and planning action for numerous special programs that require technical leadership. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS In the past 3 years a new service has been developed to meet a need for a more detailed evaluation of specific segments of the program of a State station. All experiment station scientists are familiar with the annual review of their Federal-grant projects. Specialists from the State Experiment Stations Division, Agricultural Research Service, visit the stations and meet with the research people to talk over highlights of the year's work, outstanding findings, and plans for the next year. The Division is required by the Federal legislation and regulations to review all work and expenditures on behalf of the Secretary of Agriculture. Ultimately, members of congressional appropriating committees rely on these reviews for assurance that productive research is being done and that there is no undesirable duplication of projects. These annual reviews, however, have natural limitations. One of them is that experiment station research is carried on largely on a departmental basis. Because of travel limitations, the Federal office could not possibly send out enough visitors each year to provide trained counterparts for the scientists in each of the departments being reviewed, although station directors and department heads frequently express the need for such specialized review of departmental activities. Such review is necessary to see how the departmental research fits into the total station program and how it contributes toward meeting the research needs of the State. The result has been development of what is now called the "comprehensive review. " These "comprehensive reviews" enable the experiment stations to review an entire area of research from the standpoint of the agricultural needs of the State. The review teams include consultants recognized as scientific leaders in a given technological field. PLANNING FOR THE YEARS AHEAD As the public institutions given responsibility for technical leadership in agriculture, the Federal Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Stations must be concerned with planning for the future. In order to meet the contingencies of 10, 20, and 30 years ahead, Experiment Stations are keeping their eyes on trends in population growth, industrial expansion, diminishment of natural resources like soil, water, and forests. Such planning and exploratory work is essential for a Nation that anticipates a population of 230, 000, 000 people by 1975. A FEW EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH PROGRESS Under the funds made available by the Federal Congress, by the State Legislatures, and private sources of support, the Experiment Stations each year contribute a wide variety of new findings, constantly moving agricultural technology forward. The following are a few examples of developments reported in the past year. 1. Pelleted Roughage Steps Up Gains In Ruminants. Faster and cheaper gains in feeding steers and lambs with pelleted alfalfa are reported by several experiment stations. In New Mexico pellets with 80 and 70 percent coarse alfalfa hay brought faster and cheaper gains in lambs than pellets containing 60 percent hay. In Oklahoma greater gains were made in steers fed a pelleted 1:4 concentrate-roughage ration than in steers fed a 4:1 concentrate-roughage ration. Pelleting resulted in a 14 percent increase in feed intake on the 1:4 ratio. In California finely ground pelleted alfalfa brought bigger gains in lambs than lambs fed chopped alfalfa. This more efficient conversion of roughage to meat is attributed to greater feed intake. The latter is made possible by faster passage of the partially digested cud from the rumen. This, in turn, brought a faster rate of cellulose digestion by the rumen organisms as shown by analysis of rumen content. 2. Nature of Selenium Poisoning. The Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station is using radiotracer techniques in studying selenium metabolism. It is using small experimental animals treated with readily detected radioactive selenium compounds (Se75). Recent experiments have shown that single-injected doses are rapidly concentrated in the liver tissue where the (Se75) is bound to the protein. It is also affixed, at least partially, to sulfur-containing amino acids of peptides occurring in the protein molecules. Another group of decomposition products that has not yet been identified contained radioactive selenium. It has chemical properties which suggest that the compounds may interfere with the enzyme systems of liver cells, thereby producing the extreme selenium poisoning in animals grazing on numerous browse plants known to take up selenium from the soil. 3. New Process Turns Whey Into Livestock Feed. The Nation's cheese industry annually produces about 9 billion pounds of whey. This presents a major disposal problem, often considerable waste. The Pennsylvania Experiment Station has developed a nitrogenous derivative of whey solids that can be used as a supplemental feed for sheep and steers. Chemical treatment of the whey is necessary since it contains a large amount of lactose which causes intestinal disturbances when fed to ruminants. The new process involves fermentation of the lactose until it becomes lactic acid after which the acid is automatically and continuously neutralized with anhydrous ammonia. The process converts about 80 percent of the lactose to lactic acid and the subsequent neutralization increases nitrogen about tenfold. Tested on dairy animals the nitrogenous feed supported both growth in calves and milk flow in cows. Molasses was added to make the material more palatable. It is now being manufactured by a commercial company. 4. Green Lights Encourage Turkey Poults To Eat. A serious problem in commercial turkey production is frequent starvation of baby poults. Day or 2-day-old turkeys often refuse to eat, even with full feeders in front of them. The Iowa Experiment Station attributes about onefourth of total mortality in poults to these "starve-outs." To overcome such early indifference to feed among very young turkeys, the station tested the effect of different colored lights |