Table 2. Distribution of scientist years (SY's/ by major science categories in (JSDA and State agencies, FY 1975. 



USDA STA TES" 



Percent of Percent of 



Science Categories SY's Agency Total SY's Agency Total 



Biological Sciences 2,391 55 4,583 71 



Animal-oriented 494 1 1 1 ,421 22 



Plant-oriented 1,699 39 2,800 44 



Human-oriented 99 2 161 3 



Other 99 2 201 3 



Chemistry/Physics 712 17 483 8 



Engineering 477 1 1 342 5 



Environmental Sciences 127 3 100 2 



Mathematics and Statistics 46 1 46 1 



Economics 522 1 2 535 8 



Other Social Sciences 38 1 214' 3 



Unclassified — — 116 2 



Total 4,313 100 6,419 100 



'Individual values may not add To total due to rounding 



^includes State Agricultural Experiment Stations. State Forestry Schools. 

 Colleges of 1890. and the Tuskegee Institute 

 -Hncludes 133 SYs sociology. 34 SY"s education, and 20 SY's psychology 



Source USDA 



NATIONAL TOTAL 

 SY's Percent 



6,974 



65 



technology in a general area of agricultural 

 applications. These may be characterized as 

 pure basic research and as mission-oriented 

 basic research, respectively. 



2. Creating new knowledge that will be useful 

 in solving an identified problem in agricul- 

 ture. Such basic research may be viewed as 

 mission-contributing or mission-supportive, 

 depending upon whether the identified prob- 

 lem is more or less specific. 



3. Providing a sufficient base of scientific ex- 

 pertise to link with the scientific community 

 at large so that applicable scientific ad- 

 vances, wherever they may occur, may be 

 interpreted and used to advance the agricul- 

 tural research mission. 



4. Contributing to the range and diversity of 

 scientific expertise needed in the process of 

 research program planning, evaluation, and 

 development. 



Examples of Basic Research 



The examples of recent and on-going basic re- 

 search cited in this section reflect the mission-ori- 

 ented character of such research in the USDA 

 and the cooperating State agricultural research 



organizations. They range from the pure basic 

 through mission-oriented and mission-supportive 

 basic research to mission-contributing basic re- 

 search and touch on only some of the many fields 

 of science in which basic research has been per- 

 formed. 



Development of Vaccines for Control of 

 Animal Diseases 



Research to develop vaccines for the control of 

 animal diseases continues to be given emphasis. 

 Significant break-throughs include the develop- 

 ment of a vaccine for Marek's disease, a cancer- 

 causing disease in chickens. This has been an out- 

 standing achievement in the field of virus-in-can- 

 cer and has reduced large economic losses due to 

 this disease by a dramatic 80 percent. Another 

 recent significant scientific achievement is the 

 development of a vaccine for foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease from one of the four proteins that make up 

 the protein coat of the foot-and-mouth virus. This 

 is the first time such a vaccine has been produced 

 from the noninfectious fraction of a virus. As a 

 result of this research, work is in progress to se- 

 quence the amino acids that are involved in pro- 

 ducing immunity. Future vaccines may be made 

 from noninfectious fractions of a single virus pro- 

 tein and may even be synthesized. These results 



AGRICULTURE 



