STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 423 



interest of the Federal Government is not confined to its contribu- 

 tions toward the maintenance of individual stations. It is not merely 

 attempting; to subsidize research in the States. Its interest extends 

 to the point of developing favorable conditions to insure not only the 

 proper use of the Federal funds but the employment of all available 

 resources for research. This view is expressed in the Hatch Act, 

 whose purpose was " to aid " in the establishment and maintenance 

 of experiment stations ; and that this aid was not designed to be lim- 

 ited to the financial contributions is evidenced by provision for the re- 

 lation of the department with respect to methods and results, the in- 

 dication of important lines of inquiry, and the furnishing of " such 

 advice and assistance as will best promote the purpose of this act." 

 In accordance Avith previous procedure, each of the experiment 

 stations was visited by a representative of the office during the year, 

 its work and expenditures under the Federal funds examined in de- 

 tail, and conferences held with the administrative head and the 

 workers regarding the general progress and policy of the station. 

 A revision of the classified list of projects carried on by all the 

 stations was prepared and issued and the compilation for a further 

 revision to cover the year 1921 was completed. The latter showed 

 a total of 4,770 station projects, an average of about 95 per station. 

 Of this number 52 were administrative and regulatory, leaving 4,718 

 relating to research and experimentation. Of the latter 506 were 

 conducted under the Adams fund. This is an average of 10 projects 

 pe'r station, a number which would be far too large, considering the 

 character of the investigations, were it not for the fact that Federal 

 support is supplemented from State sources. Some disposition is 

 found to assign more projects to the Adams fund than can be prop- 

 erly supported. Attempt has been made to check this tendency and 

 to insure the assignment of sufficient funds from that source or from 

 State funds to meet the needs of active and aggressive investigation. 

 Adams-fund projects, which it is found are not making progress or 

 are not receiving active attention, have, under the influence of the 

 recommendations made, been transferred to other funds or tem- 

 porarily discontinued. Every effort is exerted to make the work 

 under that research fund active, progressive,- and on a high plane of 

 investigation; and similarly, with relation to the Hatch fund, care 

 has been exercised that it should stand for substantial experimenta- 

 tion and investigation of a type clearly distinguished from demon- 

 stration. 



The publication of the projects of all the stations has relieved the 

 tendency toward duplication, and the annual visits to the stations 

 have enabled bringing into association those who were working on 

 similar lines. This has been done without bets-aying confidences or 

 disclosing methods and results but l)y the establishment of contacts 

 between workers having similar interests. 



COOPERATION. 



During the year a comprehensive review was made of the extent 

 and nature of the cooperation between the Federal Department of 

 Agriculture and the State experiment stations. This is the first 

 attempt at such a complete summary and. study of cooperative rela- 



25684— AGR 1923 28 



