REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 139 



The stations annually issue about 500 publications, which are 

 regularly sent to over 900,000 addresses, mainly those of farmers. The 

 practical results of station work are also widely disseminated through 

 the public press. They are carried out to the farmers through the 

 farmers' institutes and other forms of extension work conducted by 

 the agricultural colleges and the state departments of agriculture. 

 While the task of effectively reaching the many millions of our rural 

 people with information which may lead to the improvement of 

 agricultural practice is an enormous one and will not be thoroughly 

 performed for many years, great progress has been made m this 

 direction during the past decade. The efforts of the stations in the 

 dissemination of information have been mainly spent in popularizing 

 their work and their funds for printing are still inadequate to meet 

 the growing demands of our agricultural people. 



Meanwhile less attention has been given to the appropriate publi- 

 cation of the scientific work of the stations. This material has 

 either been combined with the practical in popular publications, 

 or issued in separate series, or published in abbreviated form through 

 scientific journals. Recently there has been a growing tendency to 

 publish such material in foreign journals in the belief that thus it is 

 more surely brought to the attention of the scientific world. 



The general result of the present method of publication of the sci- 

 entific work of our stations is very unsatisfactory and from the stand- 

 point of National pride even humiliating. We have the most com- 

 prehensive system of agricultural research in the world. The amount 

 and value of the scientific work of the stations, on which their practi- 

 cal results are based, are very great, yet the scientific publications of 

 our stations are so fragmentary and scattered that it is very difficult 

 even for workers in similar lines in this country- to obtain them in any 

 complete way, and to the great world of science they are largely 

 imkno\vn. To remedy this defect and put the scientific work of the 

 American stations in the right light before the world the Association 

 of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations has asked 

 my cooperation in laying before Congress a proposition to establish 

 under National authority a central medium for the publication of 

 original reports of the scientific work of the stations. Believing that 

 this is a matter of much importance and that it is worthy of careful 

 consideration by the Congress, I have included an item proposing an 

 appropriation for this purpose in the estimates for the ensuing fiscal 

 year. 



In the conservation of our natural resources the experiment stations 

 are doing very important work. The greatest natural resource is the 

 productive power of the soils, and the stations throughout the country 

 are making every effort to devise efficient means for the maintenance 

 and increase of the fertility of the land. The investigations in prog- 



