OFFICE OF EXPEKIMENT STATIONS. 173 



inquiries which shall be carried on in different localities in direct 

 contact with practical men and conditions. The policy i^ursued by 

 Congress in recent 3'ears of giving the Department fnnds for special 

 investigations to be carried on in cooj)eration with the stations has 

 already resulted in broadening the nsefnlness and influence of the 

 Department and the stations and in securing results of great practical 

 value. It has proved an economical means of conducting such inves- 

 tigations as are of general rather tban local usefulness, and may be 

 wisely extended. 



EXPERIMENT STATION EXHIBIT AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1900. 



A very considerable amount of work was done bj^this Office during 

 the past year in connection with the collective experiment station 

 exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900. This exhibit was prepared 

 under the general supervision of a committee of the Association of 

 American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, consisting 

 of H. P. Armsbj^ director of the Pennsjdvania experiment station, 

 chairman; M. A. Scovell, director of the Kentucky experiment sta- 

 tion; A. ^y. Harris, president of the University of Maine; W. H. 

 Jordan, director of the New York State experiment station; and the 

 Director of this Office. The general plan of the exhibit was made by 

 the committee, who also arranged with the several stations for the 

 individual exhibits tliej^ were to contribute. These contributions 

 were forwarded to Washington, D. C, where they were temporarily 

 installed nnder the direction of this Office, which also undertook their 

 labeling and packing for shipment. 



The exhibit of objects in cases included special devices and appa- 

 ratus for station work and illustrations by models and otherwise of 

 notable results of investigation. At the same time the Office secured 

 from the stations over 800 negatives and photographs illustrating 

 their officers, buildings, and equipment, together with materials for 

 about 100 large charts illustrating different features of their work. The 

 j)rinting, mounting, and labeling of the photographs and the drawing 

 of the charts on a uniform plan involved a large amount of labor. 

 This Office, through Mr. G. A. Harlow, also collected and prepared for 

 binding, as far as was necessary, a complete set of the Office and sta- 

 tion publications (some 4,000 documents), and books and monographs 

 by station officers, making in all a library of 750 bound volumes. 

 Dr. Walter H. Evans, of this Office, as the special representative of 

 the Director, took charge of the collection, installation, and packing 

 of the exhibit at Washington, D. C, and of its installation at Paris. 

 While in Paris he also aided in the installation of numerous other 

 exhibits of the Department. To his energetic and intelligent services 

 are due in a large measure the success of the exhibit. 



To accompany the station exhibit the Director and Mr. Y. A. Clark, 

 of this Office, aided by the directors of the stations and members of the 

 Office force, prepared a comijrehensive report on the history and pres- 

 ent status of the exijeriment stations in the United States. When 

 printed, this made a volume of 636 pages and was illustrated with 306 

 figures (arranged in 153 jjlates), showing buildings, equipment, and 

 features of the work of the individual stations. While this rej)ort was 

 prepared primarily to show to foreign nations represented at the Paris 

 Exposition something of the magnitude and success of our exjieriment- 

 station enterprise, it was also intended to reveal this more clearly to 

 our own countrymen and to make a permanent record of the condition 



