COOPERATION OF BUREAUS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WITH THE STATE EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

The act making appropriations for the United States Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, provides for cooperation between the Bureau of Animal Industry and the State experiment stations in animal feeding and breeding; between the Bureau of Plant Industry and the stations in the testing and breeding of fiber plants, including the testing of flax straw for paper making (in cooperation with the North Dakota Agricultural College); between the Bureau of Soils and the stations in the investigation of. soils; between the Bureau of Entomology and the stations in the prevention of the spread of gipsy and brown-tail moths; and between the Office of Markets and Rural Organization and the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in studies of cooperation among farmers. REGULATIONS OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT CONCERNING FREE TRANSMISSION OF STATION PUBLICATIONS.

Sections 516 and 517 of the Postal Laws and Regulations (1902) of the United States relating to the free transmission of reports and bulletins of the experiment stations read as follows:

TO WHOM PUBLICATIONS MAY BE FRANKED.

SEC. 516. Bulletins or reports of progress, one copy to each newspaper in the State or Territory in which the colleges hereafter referred to are located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and the annual reports required by law to be published by the agricultural experiment stations established under the provisions of the act of March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established in the various States and Territories under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and the acts supplementary thereto," for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts (of said stations) shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States free of charge for postage, under such regulations as the Postmaster General may from time to time prescribe.

HOW THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE IS TO BE USED.

SEC. 517. Agricultural experiment stations which claim the privilege of transmitting free through the mails, under the provisions of the preceding section, bulletins, reports of progress, or annual reports, must make application to the Postmaster General, stating the date of the establishment of such station, its proper name or designation, its official organization, and the names of its officers, the name of the university, college, school, or institution to which it is attached, if any, the legislation of the State or Territory providing for its establishment, and any other granting it the benefits of the provision made by Congress as referred to in the preceding section, accompanied by a copy of the act or acts, and whether any other such station in the same State or Territory is considered, or claims to be, also entitled to the privilege; and also the place where such station is located and the name of the post office where the bulletins and reports will be mailed. The application must be signed by the officer in charge of the station.

2. If such application is allowed by the Postmaster General the postmaster at the proper office will be instructed to admit such bulletins and reports to the mails free of postage, and the officer in charge of the station will be notified thereof.

3. Only such bulletins or reports as shall have been issued after an experiment station became entitled to the privileges of the preceding section can be transmitted

free; and such bulletins or reports may be inclosed in envelopes or wrappers, sealed or unsealed. On the exterior of every envelope, wrapper, or package must be written or printed the name of the station and place of its location, the designation of the bulletin or report inclosed, and the word "Free" over the signature or facsimile thereof of the officer in charge of the station, to be affixed by himself, or by some one duly authorized by him. There may also be written or printed upon the envelope or wrapper a request that the postmaster at the office of delivery will notify the mailing station of the change of address of the addressee, or other reason for inability to deliver the same, and upon a bulk package a request to the postmaster to open and distribute the "franked" matter therein, in accordance with the addresses thereon.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETINS MAY BE FRANKED WITH STATION PUBLICATIONS.

4. Bulletins published by the United States Department of Agriculture, and entitled to be mailed free under the penalty envelope of that department, may also be adopted and mailed by agricultural experiment stations, with such of their own publications as are entitled to free transmission in the mails, under the same regulations; and any bulletins or reports mailable free by any agricultural experiment station under these regulations may be so mailed by any other station entitled to such privilege.

REPORTS OF STATE BOARDS OR DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE MAY NOT BE FRANKED.

5. If annual reports of an agricultural experiment station are printed by State authority, and consist in part of matter relating to the land-grant college to which such station is attached, then said report entire may be mailed free by the director of the station, provided, in his judgment, the whole consists of useful information of an agricultural character. But the reports of State agricultural departments or boards can not be adopted by agricultural experiment stations in order to secure free circulation of such State reports.

FREE DISTRIBUTION OF ANNUAL REPORTS NOT RESTRICTED.

6. The bulletins and reports of progress issued by agricultural experiment stations can only be sent free to the newspapers and persons stated in the preceding section. The annual reports may be sent free to any address.

FREE TRANSMISSION OF ANNUAL REPORTS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

A part of section 544, relating to free transmission of annual reports to certain foreign countries, reads as follows:

The annual reports of agricultural experiment stations may be sent free to Canada, Cuba, and Mexico.

RETURN AND DISPOSAL OF UNCLAIMED MATTER.

A part of section 672, relating to the return and disposal of unclaimed official matter, as amended April 26, 1912, reads as follows:

Unclaimed official mail sent under penalty envelope or label or the frank of a Member of Congress and unclaimed reports and bulletins sent out from State agricultural colleges and from agricultural experiment stations will be returned to the office of mailing if it is known. If the office of origin can not be ascertained, such mail will be returned to the post office at Washington, D. C.

FREE TRANSMISSION TO UNITED STATES POSSESSIONS.

An order of the Postmaster General provides

Any article entitled to transmission free of postage in the domestic mails of the United States, either in a "penalty" envelope or under a duly authorized "frank," shall be entitled likewise to transmission in the mails free of postage between places in any possession of the United States from one to another of such possessions, from the United States to such possession, and from such possession to the United States.

POSTAL CARDS MAY BE SENT FREE WITH BULLETINS.

Among rulings on matters of detail the following are the most important:

In sending out bulletins from an agricultural experiment station it is permissible to inclose postal cards to enable correspondents of the station to acknowledge the receipt of its publications and to request their continuous transmission.

PAID-FOR PUBLICATIONS MAY NOT BE FRANKED.

Copies of the reports or bulletins of the agricultural experiment stations, which are purchased, paid, or subscribed for, or otherwise disposed of for gain, when sent in the mails, are not entitled to free carriage under the "frank" of the director of station.

TYPEWRITTEN OR MECHANICALLY DUPLICATED BULLETINS OR REPORTS MAY BE FRANKED.

Station bulletins and reports, consisting of typewritten matter duplicated on a mimeograph or other duplicating machine, "retain their character as free matter when properly franked by the director of the station."

HOW CARD BULLETINS MAY BE FRANKED.

Cards upon which are printed bulletins issued by agricultural experiment stations established under the provisions of the act of March 2, 1887, may be sent openly in the mails, free of postage, provided the address side of such cards bears the indicia prescribed in paragraph 3, section 517, Postal Laws and Regulations, for envelopes used by the experiment stations referred to in mailing copies of their bulletins and reports.

REPORTS OF STATE BOARDS AND DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE AND COLLEGE CATALOGUES MAY NOT BE SENT UNDER STATION FRANK.

Reports of the State boards of agriculture or other State boards, commissioners, or officers, even though they contain station bulletins and reports, can not be sent free through the mails under the frank of the director of the station. The catalogue of the college of which the station is a department can not be sent free through the mails under the frank of the director of the station, whether said catalogue is published separately or is bound together with a station publication.

RULINGS OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL

EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

From copies of letters addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury and others by the First Comptroller of the Treasury, relating to the construction of the acts of Congress of March 2, 1887 (Hatch Act),

and March 16, 1906 (Adams Act), and acts supplementary thereto, the following digest has been prepared. The dates of the decisions by the comptroller are given:

ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The annual financial statement of the stations, with vouchers, should not be sent to the Treasury Department, but a copy simply of the report that is made to the governor is to be sent to the Secretary of the Treasury. January 30, 1888.

REQUIREMENTS OF FISCAL OFFICERS.

1. The Treasury Department will not require officers of experiment stations to do or perform anything not specifically required by said bill.

2. The Secretary of the Treasury is not required to take a bond of the officers of said stations for the money paid over under the provisions of said act.

3. No reports will be required from the stations directly to the Secretary of the Treasury; but the governor of the State must send to the Secretary of the Treasury a copy of the report made to him by the colleges or stations. January 31, 1888.

SALE OF STATION BULLETINS.

The Solicitor of the Treasury writes: "I am of the opinion that there is no authority for an agricultural experiment station to sell its bulletins outside of the State or Territory. Congress appropriates for the publication and free distribution of the bulletins and neither expressly nor by necessary implication authorizes their sale." December 16, 1895.

ANTICIPATION OF FIRST QUARTER PAYMENTS.

The fiscal year commences on the 1st day of July, corresponding with the fiscal year of the Government.

*

*

An agricultural station entitled to the benefits of * appropriations made by Congress' can anticipate the payment to be made July 1, and make contracts of purchases prior to that time, if it shall be necessary to carry on the work of the station. Of course, no portion of said appropriations paid in quarterly installments can be drawn from the Treasury unless needed for the purposes indicated in the act; and so much of what is so drawn as may not have been expended within the year must be accounted for as part of the appropriation for the following year. August 2, 1888.

ESTABLISHMENT OF INDEPENDENT STATIONS.

The [Hatch] Act contemplates that where stations have already been established disconnected from the colleges the legislatures of such States may make such provisions in regard thereto as they may deem proper; but it does not authorize the establishment of stations except in connection with the colleges that were at that time or might hereafter be established under the act of July 2, 1862. January 30, 1888.

DIVISION OF FUNDS BETWEEN STATIONS ALREADY ESTABLISHED.

Where there is an agricultural college or station which may have been established by State authority and is maintained by the State, the eighth section of the above act would authorize the State to designate the station to which it desired the appropriation to be applied, whether to one or more, or all, and the Secretary of the Treasury should make the payment under the appropriation to whichever one the State might desire. February 14, 1888.

DESIGNATION OF BENEFICIARIES OF THE HATCH FUND BY STATE LEGISLATURES.

1. When an agricultural college or station has been established under the act of July 2, 1862, each college is entitled to the benefits of the provisions of said act (i. e., of Mar. 2, 1887).

2. In a State where an agricultural college has been established under the act of July 2, 1862, and agricultural stations have also been established, either under the act of July 2, 1862, or by State authority, before March 2, 1887, the legislature of such State shall determine which one of said institutions, or how many of them, shall receive the benfits of the act of March 2, 1887.

3. If the legislature of any State in which an agricultural college has been established under the act of July 2, 1862, desires to establish an agricultural station which shall be entitled to the benefits of said act, it must establish such station in connection with said college. February 15, 1888.

It is within the power of the legislature of any State that has accepted the provisions of said act of March 2, 1887, to dispose of the amount appropriated by Congress for said station to each one or all of the agricultural colleges or stations which may have been established in said State by virtue of either the provisions of the act of July 2, 1862, or the provisions of said eighth section of the act of March 2, 1887.

The whole responsibility rests upon the State legislature as to how the fund appropriated by Congress shall be distributed among these various institutions of the State, provided there is one or more agricultural colleges with which an agricultural station is connected or one or more agricultural stations. December 7, 1888.

RULINGS OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY REGARDING UNEXPENDED BALANCES OF APPROPRIATIONS, HATCH AND ADAMS ACTS.

Section 3 of the so-called Adams Act of March 16, 1906 (34 Stat., 63), which provides for an increased annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations, requires that such part of the money appropriated under the provisions of said act as may be diminished or lost or misapplied after being received by the officer of the State or Territory designated to receive same must "be replaced by said State or Territory to which it belongs, and until so replaced no subsequent appropriation shall be apportioned or paid to such State or Territory"; and this requirement is an absolute prohibition upon the apportionment until such replacement is actually made, a mere withholding from the subsequent appropriation of an amount equal to that diminished, lost, or misapplied not being a compliance with said statute. (18 Comp. Dec., 120.)

Such funds may be replaced by expending the amount involved for the purposes for which the funds were originally appropriated, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of Agriculture. There is "no limitation on time within which the replacement shall be made," but "no apportionment whatever can be made until the misapplied moneys are replaced."

The provision in the Hatch Act of March 2, 1887 (24 Stat., 440), requiring the deduction of unexpended apportionments of appropriations applies also to appropriations under the Adams Act of March 16, 1906 (34 Stat., 63). (18 Comp. Dec., 485.)

Such unexpended balances must be accounted for as a part of the appropriation for the next succeeding year; in short, each station must account every year for the specific sum ($15,000) provided by