PUBLICATIONS OF THE STATIONS. 79 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE STATIONS. 



The publicity work of the experiment stations increases from year 

 to year. The growth of extension work has led to a large number 

 of popular bulletins and circulars wdiich have been issued in the ex- 

 periment station series, although paid for out of special funds. In 

 accordance with the ruling that the Federal funds should be relieved 

 from all kinds of expenses incidental to extension work, special 

 attention has been given to the character of the publications assigned 

 to the Federal funds. 



In the majority of cases care has been exercised by the stations to 

 charge to the Hatch fund only such publications as clearly report 

 the results of their work. In some cases insufficient attention has 

 been given to this matter, with the result that publications clearly of 

 elementary and extension character were charged against the Hatch 

 fund, when there w^ere State funds to wdiich they might ha^'e been 

 assigned. Such a practice has necessitated a disallowance of the ex- 

 penditure for the particular publications involved. In other cases 

 the States have not yet made adequate provision for extension worli 

 or for publications of that character, and many popular bulletins 

 have been printed from the Federal funds. This has led to no ques- 

 tion when the bulletin was based on the station's work, and was in 

 effect a popular presentation of the results of such work, with such 

 explanatory matter as the necessities of the case seemed to make rea- 

 sonable; but the subject matter has not always been so worded as to 

 bring out the station's connection with the discussion, and this has 

 led to much correspondence wdth the stations relative to their popular 

 publications, and in some cases to a final refusal to allow the charge 

 for the publication. 



It is maintained that at the present stage the station bulletins 

 should present the experimental evidence on which their conclusions 

 and directions are based in such manner as to show clearly the sta- 

 tion's contribution to the subject. The reader is entitled to this and 

 the station is entitled to credit for its work. Such a form of presen- 

 tation detracts in no way from the interest or value of a bulletin, 

 popular or technical. Unless this is done it is impossible even for 

 the well-informed reader to distinguish between what is new and 

 what are merely generalizations from experience and the common 

 fund of information. 



The stations have been strongly urged, therefore, to restrict their 

 charges against the Federal funds to such publications as report the 

 results and applications of their work, and in the popular accounts 

 of station work to clearly credit the station with the work which it 

 has done. 



