REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE STATES RELATIONS 



SERVICE. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



States Relations Service, 

 Washington, D. C, June 30, 1923. 



Sir : I have the honor to present herewith the report of the States 

 Relations Service for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1923. 



A. C. True, Director. 

 Hon. Henry C. Wallace, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



With the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, 1923, the States 

 Relations Service will cease to exist and its several offices will have 

 new relations to the organization of the Department of Agriculture. 

 It therefore seems fitting that this final report of the Director 

 of the States Relations Service should contain a brief history of 

 the work which has been under his direction for the past 30 years, 

 together with reference to earlier matters which led to the inaugura- 

 tion of this work. 



THE MOVEMENT FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE UNITED 



STATES. 



In 1862 the land-grant act, providing endowment for agricul- 

 tural colleges, and the act establishing the Department of Agricul- 

 ture brought to a definite head on a national basis a movement 

 for the application of science to agricultural problems through 

 research, instruction, and dissemination of information which had 

 been slowly growing in the United States for more than half a 

 century. 



As soon as agricultural colleges were organized they began in a 

 small way to cany on experiments. The agricultural branch of the 

 Patent Office had for a number of years previous to 1862 made 

 studies in chemistry, botany, entomology, and plant production. 

 The chemical studies and field experiments at Rothamsted, Eng- 

 land, and in France, together with the organization of experiment 

 stations in Germany as public institutions, made an increasing impres- 

 sion on friends of agricultural improvement in this country. The 

 establishment of the Bussey Institution by Harvard College in 1870 

 and its early experiments, the similar activities of the California 

 College of Agriculture and by Prof. S. W. Johnson at Yale College, 



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