OFFICE OF EXPEEIMENT STATIONS. 179 



has also continiied to act as chairman of tlie abstract committee of 

 the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. 



The review of the foreign literature of agricultural science has been 

 made more complete by special attention to reports of investigations 

 published in the Russian, Hungarian, and Dutch languages. More 

 space has been given to veterinary science, the literature of which is 

 increasing with great rapidity. In view of the extension of the work 

 of the Department and the experiment stations to tropical regions, 

 more attention is being given to the reports of kindred institutions 

 located in such regions. Increasing difficulty is experienced in fol- 

 lowing up the current literature with the promptness which is desir- 

 able. The mass of this literature has become so great that the making 

 of adequate abstracts of even tlie more important articles published 

 in many different languages is a formidable one. The amount of the 

 literature annually examined for review in the Record has doubled 

 within the past four years. 



One very annoying thing which hinders the prompt publication of a 

 considerable number of abstracts is due to a provision of the law gov- 

 erning the public printing and binding, the practical effect of which 

 is to limit each number of the Record to 100 octavo pages. As applied 

 to such a journal, this requirement is an absurdity, and it is eai'nestly 

 hoped that a modification of the law, which injuriously affects the 

 interests of the Department in a number of ways, may soon be secured. 



The most common criticism of the Record is that too many of the 

 abstracts are not long enough to give the reader a just understanding 

 of the purport of the original article. This can be remedied only hj 

 extending the Record through increase in its editorial staff and in the 

 frequency of publication. Recent experience has furnished addi- 

 tional proof of the impracticability of securing prompt and regular 

 reviews of the literature of particular subjects by the voluntary coof)- 

 eration of unpaid collaborators. The pressure of new work on our 

 investigators in every department of agricultural science is so great 

 that very few men are able to read for themselves all the original cur- 

 rent literature of their specialties. Much less can they find time to 

 prepare abstracts of this literature for publication. The work of vol- 

 untary abstractors is therefore spasmodic and unsatisfactory. Only 

 by the organization of a regular paid staff has this Office been able to 

 make the Record the most complete review of agricultural science 

 now in existence, and only by an extension of this policy will it be 

 possible to keep pace with the increasing activity in agricultural 

 science which now extends to all quarters of the globe. Now that the 

 national and State governments in this country are annually expend- 

 ing several millions of dollars in scientific and administrative enter- 

 prises, for the most successful j)rosecution of which the information 

 furnished by the Experiment Station Record is regarded by all experts 

 of great value, the comparatively small sum required for its mainte- 

 nance is undoubtedly well spent. 



The eleventh volume of the Experiment Station Record comprises 

 1,224 pages, and contains abstracts of 355 bulletins and 4.3 annual 

 reports of experiment stations in the United States, 153 publications 

 of the Department of Agriculture, and 1,184 reports of foreign investi- 

 gations. The total number of images in these publications is 74,981 

 (for Vol. VIII it was 38,552). The total number of articles abstracted 

 is 2,225, classified as follows: Chemistry, 14(3; botan}', 175; fermenta- 

 tion and bacteriology, 10; zoology, 18; meteorology, 54; air, water, 

 and soils, 79; fertilizers, 102; field crops, 220; horticulture, 232; for- 



