RELATIONS WITH THE STATIONS. 17 



Aas been rather more than the usual amount of unrest and unsettled 

 conditions growing out of the relations of boards of control with 

 directors. AVliere the efficiency of the station work under the Federal 

 funds has been involved, it has been necessary for the department to 

 interfere and to prescribe conditions which must be recognized and 

 met by the local authorities. In some instances this has resulted in 

 the temporary withholding of the Federal funds, and in the enforce- 

 ment of the principles which must govern in the selection of station 

 officers and in the management of the institution. As long as boards 

 of control continue to have a wrong impression of their duties to the 

 station and a wrong attitude toward its conduct, the office will be 

 called upon to deal with these matters, and to restrain the local 

 authorities from action clearly detrimental to the station. The 

 practice of boards in interfering in the conduct of work after the 

 general plans have been approved, and with the expenditure of funds 

 for the purposes necessary to carry out such work, is a misconcep- 

 tion of their duties Avhich it has been necessary to combat firmly in a 

 number of instances. 



It has also been necessary to urge with greater emphasis that the 

 nature and extent of the station work now require that the directors, 

 as well as members of the staffs, shall be men well trained in agri- 

 cultural science, and that their tenure of office shall be as perma- 

 nent as that of the heads of departments in our best colleges and 

 universities. 



Questions relating to the administration of the experiment stations 

 demand increasing attention. At the present stage this is one of the 

 most important matters relating to the stations. In many instances 

 the magnitude of the enterprise, when there is coupled with it the 

 direction of the college of agriculture, the extension work, and the 

 State inspections, has clearly outgrown the old form of organization. 

 Provision is needed by which more attention and consideration will 

 be given to the conduct of the station on the business side, and in 

 the direction of its experimental and other work. A large majority 

 of the difficulties which the office encounters in its administration 

 of the funds are attributable to the lack of such provision. In some 

 of our largest agricultural institutions it is now very desirable that 

 the immediate management of the stations shall be" committed to 

 officers specially charged with that function. For this purpose an 

 increase of the administrative force should be made and the duties 

 of administrative officers further differentiated. The tendency to 

 leave important administrative matters to clerks, accountants, or 

 other persons not acquainted with the character and purpose of the 

 station work is much to be deprecated. 



One result of the broadening activities of the stations is a too gen- 

 sral use of the Hatch fund for administrative and similar expenses 



91866°— 11 2 



