WORK AND EXPENDITURES OF THE AGRICULTURAL 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



By E. \V. Ali.kn and J. I. Schulte. 

 REVIEW OF THE YEAR. 



One of the most noteworthy features of the year has been the move- 

 ment in the direction of a differentiation of experiment station work 

 proper from the various features of extension work. The latter 

 lines, including the issuing of popular bulletins, running of coopera- 

 tive demonstration tests, operation of special trains, maintenance of 

 a bureau of information, etc., which have largely developed with 

 and out of the experiment station work, have now reached large pro- 

 portions. It has been evident for several years that separate provi- 

 sion Avould need to be made for this enterprise, m order that the sta- 

 tion men might devote themselves primarily to the work of experi- 

 ment and investigation — i. e., the acquisition of knowledge and the 

 maintenance of the fund of information on wdiich the college instruc- 

 tion in agriculture and the extension teaching are very largely based. 

 Material progress was made during the year in working out this 

 differentiation in function, and in many States funds have now been 

 provided wdiich make this feasible. 



The ruling of the office against the use of the Federal funds for 

 defraying the expense of any of these fonns of extension work, which 

 went into effect with the beginning of the past fiscal year, has fur- 

 nished a strong argument to the States for providing funds and 

 facilities for it. In a number of States it has been organized under 

 a separate head and in others has been taken over by the college. It 

 has been difficult, however, for the stations, from the nature of their 

 relations to agricultural advancement, to entirely escape the growing- 

 burden of extension teaching. In several of the States they are still 

 intrusted with such work as is done, and the demand for it, even in 

 the absence of any special funds, has required a closer scrutiny of all 

 expenditures, and in several instances disallowances have been made. 

 Under the present restrictions surrounding the Federal funds for the 

 stations and the imperative demands within the States, the lack of a 

 considerable State appropriation available for more general use has 

 become a very serious embarrassment to an experiment station. The 

 office has clearly differentiated the function of the experiment sta- 

 tions organized under the Federal acts, and during the past year has 

 insisted upon the restriction of the expenditures from the Federal 



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