Station in that State. The number of stations thus again became 54. The total income of the stations during 1896 was $1,133,791.23, of which $720,000 was received from the National Government. In addition to this the Office of Experiment Stations received $30,000. The stations employed 584 persons in the work of administration and inquiry and issued 45 annual reports and 323 bulletins.

In 1897 the number of stations remained 54, but a preliminary investigation was made regarding the feasibility of conducting agricultural experiments in Alaska. The total income of the stations during 1897 was $1,129,832.99, of which $719,993.47 was received from the National Government. In addition to this the Office of Experiment Stations received $30,000. The stations employed 628 persons in the work of administration and inquiry, 283 of whom did more or less teaching in the colleges with which the stations are connected. Fiftyfour annual reports and 324 bulletins were distributed to mailing lists aggregating 506,100 names.

In 1898 the number of stations remained 54. Agricultural investigations in Alaska were continued. The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands brought within the United States an experiment station at Honolulu, which has been in successful operation since 1895, under the direction of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, which supplies the funds for its maintenance.

The total income of the stations during 1898 was $1,210,921.17, of which $720,000 was received from the National Government. In addition to this the Office of Experiment Stations had an appropriation of $35,000, including $5,000 for the Alaska investigations. The stations employed 669 persons in the work of administration and inquiry, of whom 305 did more or less teaching in the colleges with which the stations are connected. Four hundred and six annual reports and bulletins were issued during the year.

In 1899 agricultural experiment stations were in operation in all the States and Territories and in Alaska and Hawaii. In each of the States of Alabama, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York a separate station was maintained wholly or in part by State funds, and in Louisiana there were three stations receiving joint support from national and State funds.

Excluding the branch stations established in several States, the total number of stations in the United States in 1899 was 56. Of these, 52 received the appropriation provided for in the act of Congress above mentioned. The total income of the stations during 1899 was $1,143,334.93, of which $720,000 was received from the National Government, the remainder, $423,334.93, coming from the following sources: State governments, $240,300.20; individuals and communities, $12,100; fees for analyses of fertilizers, etc., $75,294.42; sales of farm products, $69,312.60; miscellaneous, $26,327.71. In addition to this, the Office of Experiment Stations had an appropriation of

$40,000, including $10,000 for the Alaska investigations. The value of additions to equipment of the stations in 1899, is estimated as follows: Buildings, $27,218.64; libraries, $10,796.15; apparatus, $16,917.07; farm implements, $10,784.88; live stock, $16,265.95; miscellaneous, $22,521.93; total, $104,504.62.

The stations employed 678 persons in the work of administration and inquiry. The number of officers engaged in the different lines of work was as follows: Directors, 71; chemists, 148, agriculturists, 68; experts in animal husbandry, 9; horticulturists, 77; farm foremen, 21; dairymen, 23; botanists, 52; entomologists, 48; veterinarians, 26; meteorologists, 17; biologists, 7; physicists, 7; geologists, 5; mycologists and bacteriologists, 28; irrigation engineers, 5; in charge of substations, 16; secretaries and treasurers, 24; librarians, 9; and clerks, 43. There were also 48 persons classified under the head of "miscellaneous," including superintendents of gardens, grounds, and buildings, apiarists, herdsmen, etc. Three hundred and eight station officers did more or less teaching in the colleges with which the stations are connected.

During 1899 the stations published 445 annual reports and bulletins. Besides regular reports and bulletins, a number of the stations issued press bulletins, which were widely reproduced in the agricultural and county papers. The mailing list of the stations now aggregates half a million names. Correspondence with farmers and calls upon station officers for public addresses at institutes and other meetings of farmers are more numerous than ever. The station officers continue to contribute many articles on special topics to agricultural and scientific journals.

The number of stations has increased from 46, in 1888, to 56, in 1899. The annual income of the stations, including the appropriation for the Office of Experiment Stations, has risen from about $720,000, in 1888, to $1,200,000, in 1899. Of this amount about $125,000 was derived from State appropriations, fees for fertilizer analyses, sales of farm products, etc., in 1888, and $423,000 in 1899. In 1889 393 officers were employed at the stations, while in 1899 their number had increased to 678. The stations published 282 annual reports and bulletins in 1889 and 445 annual reports and bulletins in 1899.

The stations are at present conducting a wide range of scientific research in the laboratory and plant house, and an equally large amount of practical experimenting in the field, the orchard, stable, and dairy. Practically all the stations are keeping a record of meteorological data, while 10 are making special studies of problems relating to meteorological phenomena and climatic conditions. Thirty-six stations are at work upon soil investigations, its geology, physics, and chemistry, or conducting soil tests with fertilizers or in other ways. Twenty-one stations are studying questions relating to drainage and seepage, or to irrigation in the field or greenhouse, and with orchard, garden, or farm crops. Thirty-three stations are making

analyses of commercial and homemade fertilizers, or are conducting field experiments with fertilizers. At least 15 stations either exercise a fertilizer control in their respective States or make analyses on which the control is based. All the stations are studying the more important crops, either with regard to their composition, nutritive value, methods of manuring and cultivation, and the best varieties adapted to individual localities, or with reference to systems of rotation. Forty-seven stations are investigating the composition of feeding stuffs, making digestion experiments, conducting feeding experiments for milk, beef, mutton, or pork, or are studying different methods of feeding. Twentynine stations are investigating subjects relating to dairying, including the chemistry and bacteriology of milk, creaming, butter making, or the construction and management of creameries. Studies on the food and nutrition of man, including the composition and digestibility of foods and metabolism, are being conducted at 14 stations. Fifty-two stations are doing chemical work, and many of them are studying methods of analysis. Botanical studies occupy more or less of the attention of 47 stations, including investigations in systematic and physiological botany, with special reference to the diseases of plants, testing of seeds with reference to their vitality and purity, classification of weeds, and methods for their eradication. Fifty-three stations work to a greater or less extent in horticulture, testing varieties of vegetables, and large and small fruits, and making studies in varietal improvement and synonymy. Several stations have undertaken operations in forestry. Thirty-six stations investigate injurious insects with reference to their restriction or destruction. Twenty-four stations study animal diseases and the methods for their prevention or cure. At least 5 stations are engaged

in bee culture, and 8 in experiments with poultry. One or more stations have made investigations on miscellaneous subjects, such as the following: Technology of wine, olive oil, and vinegar, preservation of fruits and vegetables, the draft of farm implements, road making, the manufacture of beet, cane, sorghum, and maple sugar, oyster culture, etc.

At first there was a disposition, especially in the region west of the Mississippi River, where the area of the States and Territories is large and the population scattered, to divide the Hatch fund and maintain substations in different localities. This greatly weakened the effectiveness of the station work, and in some cases prevented the establishment of the stations on a firm basis. During the past few years, largely through the efforts of the Office of Experiment Stations, these substations have been generally abolished. In California, Minnesota, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, and New Mexico one or more substations are maintained with the aid of State funds, which are used to supplement the national fund, and thus make the extension of the station work feasible and successful.

RELATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE STATIONS. The agricultural experiment stations in the United States are State. institutions supported in part by funds given by the National Government to the States to be used for their maintenance. They have also received the franking privilege under Federal authority. The direct management of the stations is wholly in the hands of State officers. The stations, however, sustain certain definite relations to different branches of the Federal Government. The appropriations called for by the Hatch Act are made by Congress from year to year. They come under the head of annual rather than permanent appropriations, Congress having the right to refuse to make them at any time. The Congressional appropriations for the stations have thus far been included in the appropriation acts for the Department of Agriculture. After a State or Territory has given its assent to the provisions of the Hatch Act and designated the college which is to receive its benefits, the money is paid directly from the United States Treasury to the treasurer or other officer of the institution with which the station is connected, who has been certified to the Treasury as the proper person to receive this fund. The payments are made quarterly in advance, as provided by law.

Regulations governing the use of the franking privilege by the stations are made by the Post-Office Department.

As departments of the colleges receiving the benefits of the landgrant act of 1862, reports of the stations are annually sent to the Secretary of the Interior, who is represented in his relations with these institutions by the Bureau of Education.

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The stations have much more intimate relations with the Department of Agriculture than with any other branch of the Federal Government. The Hatch Act provides 'that in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the work of said. stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Commissioner (now Secretary) of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigations 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 purposes of this act." In accordance with this provision, the Office of Experiment Stations was established in 1888, to represent the Secretary of Agriculture in his relations with the stations. An account of the development and present status of this Office is given on page 89.

Beginning with the year 1894, Congress has each year inserted in the appropriation act for the maintenance of the stations a provision that "the Secretary of Agriculture shall prescribe the form of the annual financial statement [required by the Hatch Act], shall ascertain

whether the expenditures under the appropriation hereby made are in accordance with the provisions of said act, and shall report thereon to Congress." Thus, virtually, the Secretary of Agriculture now has general supervision of the expenditures of the stations under the Hatch Act. In this, as in other matters relating to the stations, he has been represented by the Office of Experiment Stations. From time to time Congress has given the Department of Agriculture funds for special investigations, with the provision that the Department shall, as far as practicable, cooperate with the experiment stations in carrying on these investigations. Notable instances of such appropriations are those for nutrition and irrigation investigations, which have been in charge of the Office of Experiment Stations, the inquiries conducted by the Office of Road Inquiry, and investigations with forage plants, in charge of the Division of Agrostology. There has been an increasing amount of cooperation between this Department and the stations in other ways, including all the general lines of work in which the scientific divisions of the Department are engaged. The Department has also afforded to station officers the privileges of its laboratories, collections, and library to an increasing extent from year to year.

RELATIONS OF THE STATIONS WITH ASSOCIATIONS.

The experiment stations, as well as the colleges with which they are connected, are brought together so as to form a national system of agricultural education and research through the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. The work of this association is carried on by means of conventions composed of one delegate appointed by each of the land-grant colleges and agricultural experiment stations in the United States, together with delegates representing the United States Department of Agriculture, the Office of Experiment Stations, and the Bureau of Education, of the Department of the Interior. Annual meetings are held in different parts of the country, at which questions relating to the management and work of the stations, as well as of the colleges, are discussed in the general assembly and in a number of sections. The proceedings of the association are edited by the chairman of its executive committee and the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations, and are published by the United States Department of Agriculture as bulletins of this Office. In the interval between meetings of the association much useful work for the promotion of the general interests of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations is performed by the executive committee and standing and special committees of the association. The association has done much to establish and strengthen the stations and to aid in their administration on a permanent and substantial basis.

The stations are also largely represented in the associations of