Experimentation in the Virgin Islands. While the Virgin Islands were still owned by Denmark, in 1910, an agricultural experiment station was located on St. Croix Island. It was largely concerned with sugar cane, but there had never been very great coöperation between it and the 40,000 inhabitants until after the United States took possession on January 1, 1919. On the island of St. Thomas, the station has a problem akin to that in Guam-to induce the people to become farmers. Prior to the American succession, practically all of the people of St. Thomas depended entirely on work around the harbor for their subsistence, but the United States Shipping Board largely changed the island from a coaling station to an oil station, and with the great falling off of shipping from Europe, most of the people were thrown out of work. To make them self-supporting, therefore, the station must instruct them in other employments than coaling ships. The sugar cane industry serves as a basis for general agriculture. The breeding and testing of new varieties of cane required the distribution of 100,000 cuttings in one year, and about 3000 new seedlings were grown in 1920. Cotton breeding experiments were conducted, especially with the Sea Island variety. Experiments to determine the adaptability of tropical climate and temperate climate fruits and vegetables have shown that with proper care the common root and leguminous vegetables can be cultivated with profit in the Virgin Islands. Exhibition Activities. Incidentally presenting exhibits at national and international fairs and expositions, the Office of Experiment Stations occasionally coöperates with the Association of LandGrant Colleges and with the Office of Exhibits of the Department of Agriculture. While this activity is not considered as a permanent one, a historical review of their exhibition work shows that the demands upon the Office have in reality been quite regular. Relations with the Association of Land-Grant Colleges. Continuing its original policy, the Office coöperates with the Association of Land-Grant Colleges in such ways as their mutual interests suggest. Representatives of the Office attend the annual conventions and participate in committee activities. The presentation of papers, the editing of materials, and coöperation at expositions are examples of activities performed by the Office in connection with this association. Relations with Foreign Agricultural Experiment Stations. The Office is in constant touch with virtually every agricultural experiment station in the world, including those of Asia and the European colonies in Africa. The published results of many foreign experiments are abstracted for American readers. Foreign investigators who come to America to pursue original research are introduced at various state stations. A card catalogue of foreign stations is kept to facilitate mutual contact and the exchange of publications. Indirectly the Office has been benefited by the explorations of the department scientists, who collectively have visited nearly every corner of the world and have aided in the introduction of thirty thousand different kinds of plants for the potential benefit of the American farmer. Publication of Information. Acting as a clearing house of information on scientific progress, the Office of Experiment Stations assembles some of the results of experiments in published form. Some of the technical papers of the stations are published in the Journal of Agricultural Research, which is issued by the department. The Experiment Station Record, published by the Office, has a similar coördinating influence upon research at large, and its circulation extends throughout the world. Every month the Record reports the progress made in the Department, colleges, and stations, and discusses important phases of agricultural research. It gives reference to all technical papers that are published by members of the department in outside journals. The scientific literature pertaining to agriculture that is published in foreign countries is abstracted regularly, so that during the year about seven thousand abstracts of the world's best scientific agricultural literature are made available to all of the stations in the country. Coöperation with the Association of Land-Grant Colleges is constant in this matter. The progress of the research stations throughout the world is recorded in the office register, and it is rendered available to all American experiment stations. Through its publications, the Office defends the work of the stations, emphasizes its requirements and shows its value to the various states which coöperate with the national government in supporting that work. The annual output of bulletins, circulars, leaflets for instruction in schools, pamphlets, and similar publications, renders the Office a veritable editorial agency. CHAPTER III ORGANIZATION The Office of Experiment Stations, being a unit of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, is under the special supervision of the Secretary through the Director of Scientific Work, whose function it is to coördinate all of the scientific activities of the Department. The immediate administration of the Office is conducted by the Chief, who is in the "classified service." The total personnel of the Office on August 1, 1923, consisted of eighty-one employees, forty being in the Washington Office, and forty-one in the territorial and insular stations. All are in the classified or excepted service.1 The organization of the Office of Experiment Stations remained virtually static from its creation pursuant to the organic act of March 2, 1887 (24 Stat. L., 440), until its merger in the States Relations Service, pursuant to the act of May 8, 1914 (38 Stat. L., 372). When the latter was dissolved, and the Office of Experiment Stations was transferred to the Office of the Director of Scientific Work in accordance with the agricultural appropriation act for the fiscal year 1924, and pursuant to the order of the Secretary of Agriculture of June 8, 1923, it likewise remained intact. The functions of the Office fall into four general divisions: General Administration Relations with the Experiment Stations Publication of the Experiment Station Record Administration of Territorial and Insular Experiment Stations The Office is, therefore, functionally organized so as to correspond to these four divisions of work. But this organization is not rigid. It is amost entirely a matter of internal administrative 1 List of positions, personnel, and salary rates appears in Appendix 1. organization, according to internal exigencies, and the personnel of the divisions may often serve in connection with more than a single division of the work. General Administration. The administrative work of a general nature is conducted through the Office Proper of the Chief, the personnel of which is limited to the Chief and an executive assistant, together with associates, and from one to twenty clerks who may be detailed from the other divisions as occasion may demand. Two messengers are also provided. As the administrative head of the Office of Experiment Stations, the Chief exercises general control over the other three divisions, and he participates personally in their activities. Especially is this true in the matter of relations with the experiment stations and in the publication of the Experiment Station Record, as he personally visits many of the state experiment stations every year and serves as editor-in-chief of the Experiment Station Record. Division of Relations with the Experiment Stations. Assisting the Office proper of the Chief in its relations with the experiment stations, is the Chief of the Division of Insular Stations, whose work is mostly a unit in itself; an Associate in Experiment Station Administration, who acts as a direct aid to the Chief of the Office; and two scientific and administrative assistants. All members of this division are trained in science, and their salaries range from $3240 to $4500. The staff is charged with the rendering of advice and assistance to the state experiment stations, the supervision of the work and expenditures under national funds, the conduct of relations with the personnel administration of the stations, and the general coördination of a national system of research. Members of the division visit the state experiment stations annually to study conditions and the progress of investigation and to consult with their officers and acquire data for the annual report to Congress. They personally investigate the work performed at the state experiment stations and examine the accounts to see that the national subsidies are expended according to law, and without waste due to local maladministration. Division of the Experiment Station Record. The preparation of the Experiment Station Record requires a staff of about twelve, excluding the Chief of the Office, who is the editor-in-chief. Composing this personnel is an Associate Editor, eight specialists in charge of departments, a scientific indexer, a proofreader, and a librarian with two assistants. The salaries range from $1800 to $3240. The departments of the Experiment Station Record are: Meteorology Soils and Fertilizers Agricultural Botany, Bacteriology, and Plant Pathology Horticulture and Forestry Economic Zoology and Entomology Foods and Human Nutrition Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Dairy Farming Rural Engineering Rural Economics and Sociology and Agricultural Education The duties of each department have remained constant during the last thirty years. Each one is responsible for the report in each number of the Experiment Station Record of the progress in its particular field throughout the world, including the work of the various stations and the technical journals. They are likewise charged with the abstracting of literature pertaining to their respective departments that is published in foreign countries. Upon the librarian devolves the task of securing the publications relating to agriculture from all parts of the world, and making them available for review in the Record. The Division is entrusted also with the publication of articles for other departmental publications, such as Farmers' Bulletins and the Yearbook. Division of Insular Stations. The Office of Experiment Stations is represented in the administration of the work and expenditures of the experiment stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands by the Division of Insular Stations. These stations are administered with little if any distinction as to whether they are territorial, as those of Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, or, whether they are of the insular possessions, as Guam and the |