questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States or Territories.

In order that the funds from the National Treasury might be for the most part devoted to agricultural investigations, only $3,000 of the first year's appropriation for each station was to be expended for buildings, and thereafter only $750 a year could be so expended.

That the farmers of the country may receive prompt information regarding the work of the stations, it is provided that, in addition to "full and detailed" annual reports of their operations and expenditures, "bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States or Territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the station will permit." The franking privilege is also given for the station publications. Financial and other reports of the stations are to be sent to the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Treasury, but no provision is made for auditing the accounts by officers of the United States or for any supervision of their work by the Federal authorities. It is, however, made the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture "to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purpose of this act."

DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS UNDER THE HATCH ACT.

Owing to the failure of Congress to make a specific appropriation to meet expenditures under the Hatch Act during the fiscal year in which it was passed, the Treasury Department ruled that no money could be paid to the stations during that year. It was therefore necessary to wait until the following session of Congress before active operations could be begun under that act. Meanwhile the State legislatures one after another gave their assent to the provisions of the act and designated the institutions which were to receive its benefits. Boards of management were organized, working staffs were appointed, buildings were located and planned, land was selected for field experiments, and in general the equipment of the stations was provided for. When the appropriation was made by Congress in 1888 it was included in the general appropriation act of the Department of Agriculture, though the head of that Department was at that time in no way responsible for the expenditure of this fund, and this precedent has uniformly been followed in succeeding years.

During 1888 experiment stations in all the States (then 38 in number) and the Territory of Dakota received the national funds, making a total appropriation of $585,000, to which must be added about $125,000 derived from State appropriations, fees for fertilizer analyses, sales of farm products, etc., and $10,000 appropriated by Congress for the Office of Experiment Stations. The whole amount used for experiment station purposes in the United States in 1888 was, therefore, about $720,000. At that time there were two stations in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, and three in Louisiana. The total number which had been organized by the close of 1888 in the United States was 46.

The following year the Territory of Dakota was divided and became the States of North and South Dakota, and the station located in the latter State was continued. Branch or sub stations were established in a number of States. If these are excluded the whole number of stations in 1889 was the same as before, 46; if the substations are included, it was 63. These stations employed 393 officers, and, with this Office, expended in all about $725,000, of which $600,000 came from the National Treasury. They published that year 45 annual reports and 237 bulletins. A partial organization of new stations was also effected in the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

In 1890 stations were established in these Territories and in the State of North Dakota. An attempt was also made to establish two small State stations in north and southeast Alabama, which, however, were only temporary. Counting these, the number of stations in the United States that year was 52. The total revenues were $988,146, of which $652,500 came from the National Treasury. The Report of the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1890 gives more complete statistics of the stations than it had been possible to obtain previously, and these are summed up as follows:

The stations employ 429 persons in the work of administration and inquiry. The number of officers engaged in the different lines of work is as follows: Directors 66, chemists 101, agriculturists 63, horticulturists 47, botanists 42, entomologists 33, veterinarians 19, meteorologists 11, biologists 4, viticulturists 2, physicists 3, geologists 1, mycologists 2, microscopists 4, irrigation engineer 1, in charge of substations 16, secretaries and treasurers 21, librarians 5, clerks 18. There are also 42 persons classified under the head of miscellaneous, including superintendents of gardens, grounds, and buildings, foremen of farms and gardens, apiarists, herdsmen, etc.

During 1890 the stations have published 36 annual reports and 225 bulletins. The mailing list of the stations now aggregates about 340,000 names. At a low estimate, a total of 35 millions of pages, containing information on agricultural topics, have been disseminated among the people during the past year; furthermore, the results and processes of experiments are described in thousands of newspapers and other periodicals. The mailing lists of the stations have largely increased during the year. The calls upon station officers to make public addresses are numerous and increasing. The number of such addresses reported to this office as delivered during the past year is about 750. The station correspondence with farmers is now very large and touches nearly every topic connected with farm theory and practice.

In 1891 stations were organized in the States of Washington and Wyoming and the Territory of Oklahoma. The number of stations that year was 55, receiving funds aggregating about $925,000, of which $682,500 came from the National Treasury. They employed 481 persons in the work of administration and inquiry and published 51 annual reports and 255 bulletins.

In 1892 a new station was established in the State of Idaho, but the stations in north and southeast Alabama were no longer in operation, so that the total number of stations fell to 54. The total revenues were $1,017,144, of which $709,542 was from the General Government. They employed 491 officers and issued 50 annual reports and 298 bulletins.

In 1893 a new station was established in the State of Montana, making the total number of stations 55. Their total income was $975,073, of which $730,000 was received from the National Treasury. They employed 532 officers and issued 48 annual reports and 298 bulletins. During that year the stations made a collective exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. This was made by the Office of Experiment Stations and the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations acting in cooperation. The Director of this office, Prof. A. W. Harris, represented the office, and the association was represented by a committee of which Dr. H. P. Armsby, director of the Pennsylvania State College Experiment Station, was chairman. The station work was exhibited in nine sections: Botany, soils, fertilizers, crops, horticulture, entomology, feeding stuffs, animal nutrition, and dairying. There were also botanical, biological, and chemical laboratories, in which some of the simpler station operations were carried on by way of illustration. The publications of the stations and of this office were shown, together with a large number of photographs and charts illustrating the buildings, equipment, and work of the stations. The exhibit was in general of a popular character and was installed in the Agricultural building. In connection with this exhibit a popular digest of the publications of the stations was made by this office and published as Bulletin No. 15, entitled Handbook of Experiment Station Work. At the same exposition a very extensive test of the different breeds of dairy cows was made under the direction of a committee of station officers. In this test a daily record was kept of the food, milk, fat in the milk, and butter or cheese yield of each cow. (For a more extended account of this test see p. 84.)

In 1894 Congress adopted the recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture and gave this Department authority to examine the expenditures of the stations under the Hatch Act and report on their legality. This led to much closer relations between the Department and the stations than had hitherto existed. As soon as practicable after the sage of this act the required schedules were prepared on the basis of

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those already in use at the stations, and distributed. In order that the Department might have accurate and complete information regarding the work and expenditures of the stations as the basis for the required reports to Congress, it was decided that the stations should be regularly visited by representatives of the Office of Experiment Stations, and this has been done each year since. In connection with these visits inquiries are made regarding the management and work of the stations and their relations to the land-grant colleges. Their methods of keeping accounts are also examined. Conferences are held with the station officers and members of the governing boards, in which not only financial policy but also lines and methods of work are discussed. The first report on the work and expenditures of the stations was made by the Secretary of Agriculture to Congress early in 1896. This showed that while some difficulties had been encountered in securing the most efficient organization of the stations because of their rapid expansion and the relative lack of thoroughly trained officers, on the whole they had been of much benefit to the agriculture of the country.

The general condition of the stations at that time is set forth in this report as follows:

The principle of local control with a view to meeting the varied needs of different agricultural regions is in harmony with our governmental and educational system, and in the long run will undoubtedly produce the best results. The responsibility resting upon the State and Territorial authorities to maintain these stations will lead to their development in proportion to the interest taken in them by the people, and when once this interest is sufficiently awakened it will conduce to the building up of strong stations. This has already been the case in a number of States where the stations have been the longest established and most successful in their work. Already the aggregate funds annually received by the stations from other sources than the Hatch fund, largely from the State appropriations, constitute about one-fourth of their income.

The connection of the stations with educational institutions has on the whole been of great advantage to the stations. The colleges have provided them with land, buildings, and other equipment. The college officers have supplied in large measure the expert services in administration and research which have enabled the stations to attain whatever substantial and permanent results they have gained. And most important of all, the colleges have afforded to the stations that scientific backing without which their work is more than likely to be crude in conception, imperfect in execution, and disappointing in results. On the other hand, the stations have aided the colleges by supplying peculiar incentives to a higher grade of work on the part of their students, with a view to preparing themselves to be original investigators, by enabling them to employ more thoroughly trained instructors, and by drawing public attention more strongly to them as sources of useful information to a large body of people outside the ranks of their students. It only remains to settle more definitely the exact relations of the stations to the other departments of the colleges and to give greater opportunity to the expert and scientific workers in these institutions to exercise their proper functions in administration, investigation, or instruction.

The permanent success of scientific institutions in this country will depend upon the support of the people rather than upon the patronage of the few, and it is believed nothing can contribute more effectually to this than the union of establish

ments in which science is applied to a great fundamental art like agriculture with institutions for higher education which are supported by public funds and open to youth from all ranks of life.

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The educational influence which they [the stations] have exerted has been of incalculable benefit. Compelled by the law to publish bulletins at least once a quarter, they have almost of necessity undertaken the instruction of our agricultural people on nearly every topic connected with their art. Making every allowance for crudeness and imperfection in their reports, it nevertheless remains true that the amount of reliable information thus disseminated has been very great. The agricultural press has been quick to appreciate the value of the information furnished by the stations, and has spread the results of their work far beyond the limits to which it would have been carried by the station publications. The mailing lists of the stations aggregate over 500,000 addresses. During the past fiscal year this office received from the stations 350 bulletins and 55 reports. An average of 10,000 copies of each of these publications was distributed in the several States and Territories, or over 4,000,000 copies in the aggregate. Added to this there are the vast correspondence with the individual farmers and hundreds of addresses annually delivered by station officers at farmers' meetings. Even the superficial observer of our agricultural affairs can see that the spirit of improvement is already active, and that there is more and more demand that theories of agricultural practice shall be subjected to the test of investigation by experts.

The stations have secured the confidence and respect of practical men to a remarkable extent. Where they have done their most thorough scientific work they have secured the greatest financial support. They have already produced important changes in agricultural practice. The fertilizer business has been largely revolutionized through their efforts. The dairy industry is rapidly shifting to the basis of quality of product established by the stations. The results of feeding experiments made at the stations are being largely taken as the basis on which changes in the methods of feeding different kinds of animals are made to conform to the conditions existing in different regions. Much has been done to aid the farmer in his contest with insect pests and diseases of plants and animals. Immigrants in many instances have been shown how to avoid costly mistakes. The causes of soil exhaustion and the means of reclaiming land hitherto deemed worthless for agriculture have been pointed out. Improved varieties of horticultural and agricultural plants have been introduced in many localities. Diversification of agriculture in many States is proceeding on lines laid down by the stations.

In conection with the examination of the expenditures of the stations it became necessary for the Department of Agriculture to define its views regarding the limitations of the Hatch Act, and this was accordingly done in a series of rulings issued March 10, 1896. The most important of these were to the effect: (1) That permanent substations were contrary to the spirit and intent of that act; (2) that land could not be purchased or rented with the Hatch fund; (3) that farm operations were permissible only so far as they definitely constituted a part of agricultural investigations or experiments; (4) that funds arising from the sale of farm products or other property in the possession of a station as the result of expenditures of the Hatch fund rightfully belonged to the station and therefore should be expended for station purposes.

During 1896 the separate station maintained for many years by the State of Massachusetts was combined with the Hatch Experiment