656 ANNUAL, REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



In 1889 the first number of Experiment Station Record was pre- 

 pared. This contained abstracts of the publications of the stations 

 in 13 States (Alabama to Kansas) arranged by States in alphabeti- 

 cal order, lists of publications of the department and the stations, 

 and brief editorial notes. The arrangement of abstracts by States 

 was recognized as not ideal, but was adopted because at that time 

 it was deemed quite important to emphasize the fact that the sta- 

 tions were distinct departments of the colleges or separate institu- 

 tions having a definite organization for experimental work. In other 

 words, this helped to put the stations " on the map." This arrange- 

 ment was continued through three volumes. Thereafter the abstracts 

 have been arranged by subjects under a number of the main divi- 

 sions of agricultural science. In the third number of the first volume 

 abstracts of department publications were added, and in the fourth 

 number a beginning of recognition of the foreign stations was made 

 by the publication of statistics of the German stations. The first 

 volume also contains name and subject indexes. 



In 1890 Dr. E. W. Allen joined the staff of the office, followed by 

 W. H. Beal early in 1891. This permitted a large expansion of 

 the Record in its second volume and the introduction of abstracts 

 of Canadian and European experiments, together with news notes 

 about the stations. It is probably difficult for present readers of Ex- 

 periment Station Record to realize how conservative the department 

 was at the outset in undertaking the inclusion of abstracts of for- 

 eign publications in the Record. There were many doubts as to 

 whether it had authority to do such work or whether it would be ac- 

 ceptable to Congress and the public. 



In 1889 the first of a series of popular bulletins relating to 

 experiment station work was published. There was much thought 

 given to the choice of a name for this series before the title of 

 "Farmers' Bulletin " was adopted. The first of these bulletins, 

 under the title of " The what and why of agricultural experiment 

 stations," gave a brief explanation of the purpose, history, work, 

 and publications of the stations and an address list of the State 

 Citations. This was followed in the second number by brief sum- 

 maries of station work in several lines. These bulletins proved so 

 acceptable to the public that the Secretary of Agriculture made the 

 series general for the department, and thereafter they have been 

 prepared by the various bureaus of the department, though for a 

 number of years the Office of Experiment Stations was the most 

 frequent contributor to the series. From 1897 to 1913 the office also 

 contributed to the Farmers' Bulletin series 76 numbers of a sub- 

 series entitled " Experiment station work," each number of which 

 contained several brief popular articles based upon the more prac- 

 tical work of the experiment stations and kindred institutions in 

 this and other countries. 



In 1890 the card index of station publications was begun and 

 in 1892 a handbook of experiment station work was prepared. In 

 1889 the office began the editing and publication of the proceedings 

 of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experi- 

 ment Stations, which was continued through 1909, when the as- 

 sociation itself undertook this work. 



A large number of technical bulletins on subjects relating to the 

 work of the Office of Experiment Stations and the States Relations 



