Twelve years later the Office of Experiment Stations was strengthened by the Adams Act of March 16, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 63, 64), which provided " for an increased annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations and regulating the expenditure thereof." This law places the administration of the measure in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture, who is required to "certify to the Secretary of the Treasury as to each State and Territory whether it is complying with" the law," and is entitled to receive its share of the annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations," and the amount it is to receive. Likewise, the Secretary of Agriculture is required to make "an annual report to Congress on the receipts and expenditures and work of the agricultural experiment stations in all of the States." The use of the Adams Act funds was restricted to original research, and the Secretary of Agriculture made the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations his representative in the administration of this law. Naturally, the Office became a more vital force in the development of the state stations.

Consistently acquiring new duties, the Office of Experiment Stations steadily evolved into an important bureau. Besides the supervision of the national funds given to the state experiment stations, it was entrusted with the administration of the Alaskan and insular experiment stations, the investigation of agricultural instruction in the public schools, the investigation of the organization and progress of farmers' institutes, the far reaching relationship to extension work, the promotion of the graduate schools of agriculture, the investigation of irrigation and drainage projects, and the study of human nutrition."

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"In 1887-88, the year after the passage of the Hatch Act, the stations expended:

In 1905-06, the year preceding the passage of the Adams Act:

By 1914 the Office of Experiment Stations had developed so many functions besides that of coöperation with the state experiment stations that it was proposed to change its name to the "States Relations Service." Secretary Houston reported to the President that the term " Office of Experiment Stations" was no longer indicative of the complete activities of the Office because it had "in addition to the supervision of the experiment station funds the supervision of other funds expended by the land-grant colleges," and it had "logically been charged with the administration of the new extension act," and that arrangements had been made for coördinating with the extension service the direct farm demonstration work that had been conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry. Consequently, the States Relations Service, which was organized in 1915, was really the original Office of Experiment Stations with additional functions.

The Office of Experiment Stations as a Unit of the States Relations Service: 1915-1923. In 1915 the Department of Agriculture

...

The first fifteen or twenty years of the existence of the stations was a period of novitiate. A sufficient number of workers had not yet been trained to man efficiently the large number of stations simultaneously established. The lines of possibly useful experimentation that offered were so numerous that, lacking experience, it was difficult to make wise selection. The true nature and functions of the stations were unknown, unappreciated or misinterpreted by many of the communities in which they were established and, sometimes, even by those charged with their administration and control. It was inevitable, therefore, that there should have been more or less of groping after stability and accurate consciousness of purpose. There was undoubtedly much effort that was unwise, much labor that was useless, much duplication that was unnecessary, much wastefulness, if you please, of both energy and means. But, notwithstanding this, the results which were achieved by the stations in this early period of their history abundantly justified the wisdom of their establishment. Investigation and experiment were prosecuted along numerous lines. Ability, earnestness and energy were manifested on every hand. Errors innumerable in agricultural practice were exposed, truths in great numbers were demonstrated, a vast number of useful publications were added to agricultural literature, and the foundations may be truthfully said to have been thereby firmly laid for a really intelligent and scientific agriculture.-White, The experiment stations, in Association of American Agriculture Colleges and Experiment Stations, Proceedings, 1912, p. 84.

When the agricultural experiment stations were first organized "there were practically no organizations for the diffusion of agricultural information among the farmers. It therefore seemed necessary that the Hatch fund should be liberally interrupted in order to aid the stations in establishing their work and gaining the support of their proper constituency."—True, ibid., 1908, p. 105.

underwent a partial reorganization in accordance with the authority granted to the Secretary of Agriculture in the agricultural appropriation act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. L., 1086).

The States Relations Service was created as a new bureau to include the Office of Experiment Stations; the Office of Extension Work in the South, which conducted the farmers' coöperative demonstration work and the Smith-Lever agricultural extension work in fifteen Southern states; the Office of Extension Work in the North and West, which performed similar functions in thirtythree other states; the Office of Home Economics, which conducted investigations relating to foods, clothing, and other household problems; and a service to conduct relations to agricultural instruction in the schools, to farmers' institutes, and to similar organizations. The irrigation and drainage work was transferred to the Office of Public Roads. The graduate schools of agriculture had been previously abandoned.

In 1923 the Department was again reorganized by authority of the agricultural appropriation act of February 26, 1923 (42 Stat. L., 1289). The States Relations Service as a bureau was completely abolished, but practically all of its component agencies were maintained intact as separate units. The Office of Home Economics was developed into a separate departmental bureau, and its activities promised to be greatly extended through the potential development of home economics experiment stations in the state agricultural colleges. The Office of Coöperative Extension Work, like the Office of Exhibits and the Office of Motion Pictures of the Division of Publications, was placed in the Extension Service of the Department to be directed by a Director of Extension Work. The investigation of agricultural instruction in the schools was continued under the general supervision of the Specialist in States Relations Work in the Office of the Secretary, the Specialist being Dr. A. C. True.

The Office of Experiment Stations was continued as a separate unit of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture under the direction of a Chief who, also, was made Assistant Director of Scientific Work reporting to the Director of Scientific Work in the Office of the Secretary.

The primary activities that remained with the Office of Experiment Stations after this reorganization of 1923, according to its chief, Dr. E. W. Allen, were: to pass upon and approve the research

projects to be carried on under the Adams Act; to make an annual examination of the work being done under the federal and state funds at each of the stations; to review the expenditures from the Hatch and Adams funds; to confer with the local officers regarding matters of policy and administration, to compile annually the projects conducted at all of the stations in a classified list; to promote coördination and coöperation between the stations and with the Department; to make an annual report to Congress upon the progress of the stations; to maintain advisory relations with the stations on a wide variety of matters; and to exert influence on the organization, management, and standards of the stations through editorials in the Experiment Station Record.

While the Office of Experiment Stations retains this wide variety of functions, many of its past and some of its present activities have developed somewhat independently and its agency has evolved as a differentiated unit. Some of these activities were fostered by the Office until they required a separate agency. Some formed the basis of agencies in other bureaus. The history of each function is, therefore, presented as an independent unit, although each was temporarily or permanently placed under the administration of the Office.

The National Alaskan and Insular Experiment Stations. Coincident with the development of the natural resources of Alaska, and of the insular possessions subsequent to 1898, was the need of experiment stations. These institutions were gradually supplied by Congress, and they have continuously remained under the direct administration of the national government. This activity involved both the development of virgin soil and the regeneration of exhausted farm land.

The Alaskan Stations. The first of these stations was located at Sitka, Alaska, during the migration to the Klondike in 1898. It had been proposed, however, a decade before the Klondike rush. As early as 1885, the Commissioner of Agriculture suggested that the Industrial Training School at Sitka would furnish an admirable basis for a station, where could be conducted careful experiments to ascertain the agricultural products best adapted to the climate and soil of the territory, and what breeds of cattle and other domestic animals are most suited to its climate and soil."

In 1897 Congress made an appropriation to be expended by the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate and report to Congress upon the agricultural resources and capabilities of Alaska, with special reference to the desirability and feasibility of the establishment of agricultural experiment stations,' 965 in the territory. Similar appropriations were subsequently granted to continue the investigations," and to establish and maintain agricultural experiment stations in said territory, including the erection of buildings and all other expenses essential to the maintenance of such stations," by the act of March 1, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 947, 953).

A commission investigated the territory from the island region of the southern boundary to Unalaska, and reported upon the feasibility of conducting investigations in that environment." Congress promptly provided for experiment work, and in the summer of 1898 the work included examinations of soils and experiments in growing cereals, forage plants, and vegetables. Lands at Sitka, Kodiak Island, Kenai, and Cook Inlet were reserved for experimental purposes, and plans were made for placing the work on a permanent basis.

Later the regular force was increased, farming implements and animals were introduced, and the work was conducted through the regular stations at Sitka, Rampart, Kodiak, Matanuska, and Fairbanks. In 1922 Alaska College was developed and located at Fairbanks.

The Hawaii Station. Experiment stations for Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines were recommended by the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations in his annual report for 1899. Subsequently the suggestion was realized in all of these possessions excepting the Philippines and one of the Virgin Islands.

In Hawaii an experiment station had been established at Honolulu in 1894 by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, for the special study of problems relating to sugar-cane farming and the sugar industry. This gave an opportunity for the government to work on the diversity of agricultural problems in Hawaii, and a government station, which was provided by the act of May 25,

65 30 Stat. L., 6.

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The report of this commission is contained in 55 Cong. 2 sess., H. doc. 160. (1897). An account of the early experiments in the Alaska stations is given in 56 Cong. I sess., H. doc. 314 (1899).