30 KKl'OKT OK OKKK'K (»K KX I'KKIMKNT STATIONS. 



the cliai'actcr and iiiaiia^'ciiiciit of soils, the us(> of fcrlili/crs. and Iho 

 jjrowtli ol" \ari('ti('s ot" lirld and lior(i<ultural crops. A larj*-!; sharo of 

 the work already done on these snltjects l)y the stations needs to be 

 suj)i)lenien(ed l»y exi)eriinen(s carried on in dill'ei-ent j)arts of their 

 ivspective States, hut this the}' are unahle to do. The «^reatness of 

 the a«;rieidtural ref^ions in whose interest our individual stations are 

 working- is rarely realized. E\-en alonj^ the Atlantic coast we liave on 

 an axcra^'e only one station for each 2-I:,000 square miles; France and 

 (lerniany have cijj^ht times as main'. The South Central States with 

 their 10 stations are 40 per cent larj^er than all of France and (iermany 

 with their 151 stations; and Texas alone, with one Federal station, is 

 27 per cent larijfer than either of theses countries. The ratio of stations 

 to area in France and ( Jermany is 1>G to 1 as compared Avith Texas, 28 

 to 1 as compared with jNIinnesota and the Dakotas, and 3*J to 1 as com- 

 pared with the Pacific States. 



Some of the States have tried to meet the local needs of agriculture 

 ])y the estiiblishment of substations, but as a rule the funds provided 

 for this purpose have been entirely inadequate. 



When the Hatch Act was passed, less than twenty j'ears ago, no 

 country had csta))lished experiment stations on the broad plan set forth 

 in that act. The success of our stations has thoroughly demonstrated 

 their usefulness. At the same time, they have shown possibilities for 

 the useful extension of their work which were not at all understood 

 when the Hatch Act was passed. Aside from the needs of tlu; stations 

 growing out of the greater specialization of their work which calls for 

 the employment of a larger staff, the cost of their equipment with lab- 

 oratories, apparatus, and other facilities has greatly increased, and the 

 demands for the information which they are able to supply have made 

 the expenses connected with the printing and distribution of their doc- 

 uments much ""reater than in the earlv vears of their history. An 

 enormous correspondence with farmers has also been developed which 

 must be provided for, and is now in many cases a hindrance to the 

 research work of the stall' because of lack of funds for clerical 

 assistance. 



In these and other ways the magnitude of the station work at the 

 present time is in itself an important item as related to their financial 

 needs. If the individual stations needed $15,000 per annum for their 

 woi-k a decade or more ago, they certainly need a much larger sum to 

 carry on their work to the satisfaction of the agricultural connnmiity 

 at the present time. 



The work done b}' the stations in \'arious lines has brought out 

 clearly the necessit}- for more fundamental investigations, but such 

 investigations as a rule are costly and onh' a few of our stations have 

 been able to undertake them. The stations, for example, have made 

 numerous feeding experiments >vith difierent kinds of farm animals. 



