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THE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT

STATIONS

ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES, AND

ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER I

HISTORY

The Office of Experiment Stations is a service of the United States Department of Agriculture, operating in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture under his special supervision through the Director of Scientific Work, and under the direct administration of the Chief of the Office of Experiment Stations.

Its principal functions are: To assist in the coördination of the scientific research work of the Department of Agriculture; to advise with the several states in the planning and conduct of the work of the sixty-seven state agricultural experiment stations; to supervise the expenditure of the national funds granted by Congress to those stations; to administer the agriculture experiment stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and Gaum, and in the Virgin Islands, conducting extension work in connection with them; to inform Congress of the work being performed by the various stations; to advise scientific investigators of the current developand the Insular possessions, and requiring the supervision of improved methods of practicable agriculture; and, to edit and manage the Experiment Station Record for the benefit of technicians, students, and the general public.

The only experiment stations with which the Office is directly concerned are the strictly agriculture experiment stations, although it would be free, should occasion so demand, to coöperate with the engineering experiment stations and with home economics laboratories that are located in the state agricultural colleges and conse

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quently in organic relationship with the local agricultural experiment stations. But the Office of Experiment Stations has no control or supervision over the work of the forestry experiment station, the mining experiment stations, the zoological experiment stations, or the biological experiment stations that are located in various parts of the United States and are related respectively to the Forest Service, to the Bureau of Mines, to the Bureau of Animal Industry, and to the Bureau of Fisheries.

To accomplish its functions, the Office is engaged in several specific activities, requiring a personnel organization of about eighty employees divided equally between the Washington headquarters and the national stations in Alaska, the Insular territories, and the Insular possessions, and requiring the supervision of an annual appropriation of about one and three quarters millions of dollars.

The Office of Experiment Stations was created pursuant to the act of March 2, 1887 (24 Stat. L., 440), the constitutional authority for its various activities being Article I, Section 8, which empowers Congress to provide for the "general welfare of the United States." Contributing to the "general welfare," the Office rapidly inaugurated several functions which subsequently developed to such proportions as to require separate agencies for their performance. Conducting relations with agricultural institutions in the elementary schools, the movable schools, the land-grant colleges, and the farmer's institutes; directing investigations in irrigation, drainage, and agricultural engineering; executing nutrition researches; participating in various national and international expositions; and supervising miscellaneous activities kindred to these, the Office of Experiment Stations was a contributing factor to the creation of the Office of Coöperative Extension Work; the Bureau of Public Roads, the Bureau of Home Economics, and the Office of Exhibits. By 1915 nucleii of new agencies had so developed that the States Relations Service was created to include the Office of Experiment Stations; the Office of Extension Work, which included the farmers' coöperative demonstration work; and the Office of Home Economics. Other activities were assigned elsewhere. Upon the dissolution of the States Relations Service in 1923, the above named offices became independent units. The Office of Experiment Stations continued its original functions,

fully aware of the influence that was being brought to bear upon it for further pioneer work that promised to warrant the creation of more new agencies.

Thus, while the Office of Experiment Stations has always maintained its original functions, those permanent functions do not represent the complete work of the Office for the "general welfare of the United States." Conversely, this constitutional provision does not provide the sole authority for the permanent and transitory functions of the Office. The force of precedents and the expediency of occasions were dynamic factors, not only in the creation of the Office but also in the determination of the executive policy and the administrative procedure of the Office throughout its history. Some of these precedents were established prior to the constitutional period, for both the colonial and the British governments fostered activities kindred to those now performed by the experiment stations.

Colonial Precedents for Government Aid to Agricultural Experimentation. Of the several activities relative to agricultural development that were fostered by the colonial and the British governments, those dealing with experiments are particularly representative of the activities that are now conducted by the Office of Experiment Stations. Government aid to experimental farming in the colonies was inevitable. There was virtually no other way to learn how to master the agricultural environment of the New World.

The colonists were too aggressive to be content with the sort of agriculture which they had learned from the Indians; so experimentation was the sole method of advancement. Accordingly, in 1622, James I attempted to foster in Virginia the cultivation of mulberry trees and the breeding of silkworms. Parliament persisted in promoting the raising of indigo and other products in Georgia during the decade 1633-1643, and granted money for the experiment. Government land in Georgia was set aside for silk culture in 1732. Parliament likewise granted a premium for silk culture in the colonies in 1748 and the South Carolina assembly appropriated one thousand pounds for silk filature in 1766. The cultivation of hops was encouraged by Virginia in 1657. The sheep industry was stimulated by Massachusetts in 1642, when

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