16 l(i:i't)KT OF OFFICE OF EXPEIUMENT STATIONS. 



(lislril)ut('»l (liirii.^ (lir previous year, through correspondence with 

 hundreds of thousands of farmers, and throu<;h demonstrations and 

 k'ctures reaching otlier hun(h"eds of thousands, tlic total expense of 

 maintainin<i: these stations during 1905 will have been paid nearly 

 twice over. 



There is abundant evidence that in several States the farmers 

 themselves are beginning to give the experiment stations a large share 

 of credit for improved conditions of agriculture. One indication of 

 this is found in the greater denumds made upon the stations by the 

 farmers for advice and assistance, but a stronger mark of approval 

 is found in the recent liberal appropriations for the investigation of 

 special problems of more or less local application. Noteworthy 

 among the ai)proj)riations of this nature now being used by the sta- 

 tions are the following: Illinois has $95,000 for investigations in 

 soils, live stock, dairying, field crops, and orchards; California, 

 $()0,000 for the stud}^ of plant diseases and the improvement of 

 wheat; Michigan, $20,000 for live-stock work; Utah, $25,000 for 

 experiments in arid farming, irrigation, and drainage; New Jersey, 

 $1G,000 for investigations and aid to local communities in the eradica- 

 tion of mosquitoes; Indiana, $15,000 for studies in beef production, 

 dairj'ing, and the improvement of crops and soils ; Minnesota, $10,000 

 for plant breeding and soil investigations; North Dakota, $9,000 for 

 investigating the milling qualities of wheat and for inspection work; 

 and Colorado, $7,000 for work with live stock, grains, forage crops, 

 and root crops. 



The different States are also providing more liberally for the gen- 

 eral maintenance of the stations and expending larger sums than 

 formerly for suitable Ijuildings and equipment and for substations 

 to be conducted inider the control of the stations receiving Federal 

 aid. The stations now receive, in the aggregate, nearl}' $100,000 

 more from the States and other sources than from the Hatch fund. 



NEEDS OF THE STATIONS. 



.The liberality of some of the States has a tendency to accentuate 

 rather than alleviate certain difficulties under which the stations are 

 laboring. It gives them, to be sure, better buildings and equipment, 

 more and better salaried investigators, and funds for special work 

 partaking largely of the nature of demonstrations, but it does not 

 provide adequately for the concomitant increase of investigations of 

 a more strictly scientific nature. Furthermore, while the funds given 

 bj'^ the States are large in the aggregate, the stations that are liber- 

 ally provided for are relatively few. Man}'^ of the 'stations in the 

 less highly developed agricultural regions have to pay practically 

 all their expenses from the Hatch fund, and the demands made by 



