subjects based on the work of the experiment stations, bulletins containing statistics and general information regarding institutions for agricultural education and research, and the proceedings of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations.

FARMERS' BULLETINS.

As already stated, the series of Farmers' Bulletins was begun in this Office with a view to making a popular record of the results of work at the experiment stations for general distribution among the farmers of the country. After the scope of this series was enlarged and it was made a general series for the Department, the Office continued to prepare, or to obtain from officers of the experiment stations, articles of a popular character on different subjects which might properly be included in this series. Latterly the Office has restricted these articles to subjects connected with the special investigations in its charge and résumés of the publications of the experiment stations. The latter are grouped together in a subseries entitled Experiment Station Work.

EXPERIMENT STATION WORK.

This title has been given to Farmers' Bulletins prepared in this Office, in which a number of short articles on different subjects, based on the publications of the experiment stations, are grouped together to form single bulletins. As stated in a note inserted in each number of this series, "The chief object of these publications is to disseminate throughout the country information regarding experiments at the different experiment stations, and thus to acquaint our farmers in a general way with the progress of agricultural investigation on its practical side."

Each article included in the Experiment Station Work is signed by the person who prepares it. The meaning of technical terms necessarily used in these articles is explained in an appendix. Illustrations are used as far as seems desirable. Whenever the number of these bulletins is sufficiently large to make a volume of convenient size, an index will be prepared covering the numbers to be included in the volume. In this way, as time goes on, it is expected that there will be in libraries and in the homes of many farmers a series of volumes containing a popular record of the practical results of the work of our stations. Through this series the farmer in any part of the country is enabled to ascertain the most important practical things our stations are accomplishing wherever they may be located.

THE CARD INDEX OF EXPERIMENT STATION LITERATURE.

The Card Index of Experiment Station Literature prepared in this Office is a subject index printed on cards. Each card contains the title

of the article, the name of the author, a bibliographical reference to the experiment station publication containing the article, and also to the Experiment Station Record, and a brief abstract showing the nature and scope of the article. A classification number is printed at the right hand upper corner of the card and a serial number at the left hand lower corner. The subjects treated in experiment station literature are divided into thirteen general topics, and these are subdivided on a decimal system as far as may be found necessary without making too minute a subdivision for practical purposes. The titles of the general divisions and the subdivisions are printed on division cards of different colors. A set of these division cards is furnished with each set of the index cards, and in this way provision is made for the orderly arrangement of the index in a cabinet. A key showing the system of classification is also furnished. A copy of this key and of sample cards is given in the Appendix. The number of cards thus far prepared is 19,000, covering the publications of the stations from 1888 to 1897. A set of the index is furnished to each agricultural college and experiment station in this country, and to the boards or commissioners of agriculture in the several States. The index is also sold to subscribers at the rate of $2 per thousand cards, and $1.25 for a set of division cards. Three hundred sets are printed.

CIRCULARS.

The circulars prepared in this Office are, as a rule, brief documents containing information on special topics connected with the work of the colleges and stations, reports of committees of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, lists of books on agricultural subjects, and miscellaneous information of limited importance or transient character. They are used to a considerable extent in lieu of letters in answer to inquiries.

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS.

The schedules prepared in this Office are forms required in recording work connected with the investigations in charge of the Office. The Office prepares several articles each year for the Yearbook of the Department. These and special articles from the Experiment Station Record are published in limited editions as separates.

A set of four colored charts, based on tables and diagrams in publications of the Office, and describing some of the results of investigations on the food and nutrition of man has been distributed to some 2,000 educational institutions in this country.

DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLICATIONS.

All matters relating to the printing, illustration, and distribution of the Department publications are in charge of the Division of Publi

cations. Whenever the manuscript of a publication is transmitted from the Office of Experiment Stations to the Division of Publications it is accompanied by a statement of the edition required and the proposed plan of distribution.

Lists of the governing boards, staffs, and libraries of the experiment stations are kept in this Office. These are printed for use in a mailing machine and are furnished to the Divison of Publications and to the experiment stations in different parts of the country as occasion requires. Select classified lists of colleges and other educational and scientific institutions, professors, teachers, and scientists in the United States and other countries are kept on cards. Written copies of such addresses are furnished the Division of Publications as the plan for the distribution of each publication may require. A select printed list of libraries is kept by the librarian of the Department, who furnishes them copies in a similar way. Lists of newspapers and journals are kept by the Division of Publications, to which the publications of this Office and press notices of the same are distributed.

The Experiment Station Record is sent to regular lists, as stated on page 102. The technical bulletins are printed in editions of a few thousand copies and distributed to the lists mentioned above, according to the subject-matter of each bulletin. The Farmers' Bulletins, including Experiment Station Work, are also distributed to these lists and to farmers' organizations. Each member of Congress is entitled to several thousand copies of Farmers' Bulletins annually. They are also freely sent from the Department to all applicants. The circulars, schedules, and separates are issued in limited editions, and are not, as a rule, distributed in any regular way, but are used for special purposes or in connection with correspondence. Under existing laws, copies of the Experiment Station Record and technical bulletins are furnished to a general officer of the Government called the Superintendent of Documents (Union Building, Washington, District of Columbia), who is authorized to sell them at a fixed price.

From its organization in 1888 to January 1, 1900, this Office issued 344 documents, which may be classified as follows: Experiment Station Record, 104 volumes, 119 numbers; technical bulletins, 73; Farmers' Bulletins, 43; circulars, 43; schedules, separates, etc., 66. The number of copies printed in 1897, 1898, and 1899 was as follows:

Number of copies of publications of the Office of Experiment Stations issued in 1897, 1898, and 1899.

The Yearbook of the Department, to which this Office annually furnishes several articles, is largely distributed by Congress. The edition of the Yearbook is 500,000 copies.

ALASKA EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

Beginning with 1897, agricultural investigations have been carried on in Alaska under the direction of this Office. The work is now established on a permanent basis and is in many respects comparable with that done by the agricultural experiment stations in other parts of the United States. An account of the Alaska Stations has therefore been included with those of the other stations and may be found on page 131.

NUTRITION INVESTIGATIONS.

The subject of food economy in all its details, always of vital interest, has acquired increased importance in this country in recent years from the extensive investigations on the subject that have been and are being prosecuted in connection with and as a part of the work of the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural experiment stations. There had been a large number of investigations on the food of man, as well as some work with domestic animals, before the experiment stations were established in the United States. Much of the early work was carried on in connection with physiological investigations or some other work connected with the study of medicine. Some of the investigations, however, were directly comparable with more recent work. With the rise of the experiment stations more systematic inquiries into the composition of feeding stuffs and their appropriate use in the nutrition of domestic animals were undertaken and have ever since been carried on quite actively. Later some of the stations undertook similar investigations on the food and nutrition of The science of the nutrition of man has so much in common man. with that of nutrition of animals that a distinction between the two is not easily made, and naturally they have often been studied together. These researches have been carried on mainly in the physiological and chemical laboratories of universities as well as of experiment stations. On the whole, for the study of foods and the laws of nutrition much more experimental inquiry has been made with animals than with men, partly because of the greater case and convenience of experimenting with animals and partly because of the especial activity of the experiment stations in this direction.

The first American investigation on the subject of human nutrition which has been found by the authors was carried on by J. R. Young, in Philadelphia in 1803. It was entitled "Experimental Inquiry into

the Principles of Nutrition and the Digestive Process." The author studied the nutritive value and digestibility of such materials as sugar, gum, beans, and wheat, making experiments with frogs and other small animals. The article summarizes the ideas of human nutrition held at that time.

Some mention should be made of the very extended investigations of Dr. William Beaumont. Commencing in 1822, he carried on a series of observations extending over many years on the digestibility of foods. His experiments were made with a man who had received a wound in the stomach, which healed but did not entirely close. It was possible to remove the stomach contents readily through this opening or to examine the food while in the stomach. Many experiments were also made in vitrio. Dr. Beaumont studied especially the length of time required for foods to be converted into chyme, or, as he is ordinarily quoted, the length of time required for digestion of different foods. Very many of the statements made to-day as to the time required to digest certain foods can undoubtedly be traced to these experiments.

Much of the early work in the study of foods in this country was analytical, along the line of the chemical composition of different food materials. The first work of this kind of which we have found record was the ash analysis of rice, rice flour, husk, etc., reported in 1844 by C. U. Shepard. Mention should also be made of the extended investigation of Salisbury upon the composition of maize and a number of vegetables, and the similar work of Emmons and of Jackson. A not inconsiderable amount of such work was carried on between the years 1844 and 1860, most of which, however, is of interest to-day chiefly from a historical standpoint. The greatest accuracy of the work done at that time was in the determination of the elementary composition and the inorganic compounds of the food products. A considerable number of analyses were carefully made in an attempt to learn the proximate composition also; but accurate and reliable methods of organic and analytical chemistry had not yet been fully developed, so the results are comparable only in a general way with those of analyses which have been made according to the so-called "Weende" methods, which were devised and came into general use about 1864. Since that time it has been possible to carry on systematic investigation of food materials from the standpoint of their nutritive values as determined by their chemical composition. The first analyses made by the Weende method in this country of which record has been found were a series of analyses of maize by Prof. W. O. Atwater in 1869.

A considerable amount of investigation of materials used as food by man has been for many years and is still being carried on by the Division of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture. Mr. Clifford Richardson made a large number of analyses of specimens