STATION ADMINISTRATION. 77 



culture as a science and an art. The station should present a strong 

 effective front, and should be developed and conducted on the basis 

 of carefully matured plans. With competent heads of departments 

 and a clear policy relating to the work and expenditures, a high de- 

 gree of efficiency can be maintained in individual departments. But 

 in many respects the station should exist as a unit, and not merely 

 as an aggregation of several independent departments. Without 

 plans and direction, the formulation of definite policy, and provision 

 for meeting the needs and requirements of the institution as a whole, 

 the conduct of the station will be haphazard and unbusinesslike, and 

 aside from a lack of the highest efficiency embarrassing difficulties 

 will be encountered Avith the finances and otherwise. All but two 

 of the stations (Nevada and North Dakota) are now presided over 

 by separate directors; in these two exceptions the president of the 

 university or college holds the position of director. In a consider- 

 able number of other cases the position of dean of the college of agri- 

 culture and director of the experiment station is combined in a single 

 officer, who frequently has other duties assigned to him, such as 

 charge of the domestic science department, general supervision of 

 the extension work, etc. 



The growth of the stations and the complication of their activity 

 makes the need of effective direction increasingly imperative. That 

 this need is not always being fully met is evidenced by the inspec- 

 tion conducted by this office and by its various dealings with the 

 stations. This is a fault of the present system rather than of the 

 men working under it. These men are usually overburdened with 

 responsibilities. They are trying to cover too broad a field and to 

 administer too many different classes of undertakings, and the or- 

 ganization is not such as to relieve them sufficiently of responsibility 

 for details. As a result many important matters fail to receive the 

 attention or consideration which good administration demands, and 

 the actual touch with the work is often not close. 



At many institutions the instruction work in agi'iculture, the new 

 extension features, and the inspection, demonstration, and investiga- 

 tion work of the experiment stations have developed so rapidly and 

 to such magnitude that the combination dean and director can, in 

 the nature of the case, give but little attention to any of them in 

 detail. The administrative work has outgrown the ability of a 

 single man to handle it, except in a most general and supervisory 

 manner; and to meet this no adequate provision has been made for 

 an associate or executive officer to represent the dean in looking after 

 the details of administration. 



In the early history of the stations it was not uncommon for the 

 president of the college to act as director of the experiment station. 



