344 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the station activity. Its work has naturally been directed along 

 emergency lines to a considerable extent, especially in the problems re- 

 lating to increased production and conservation of the food supply. 

 The station director, from his position in relation to the agricul- 

 ture of the State, has naturally been called upon to a great extent to 

 direct and assist in the various measures adopted in the State. These 

 activities have necessarily diverted his attention to some extent from 

 the customary administration of the station. The changes in the 

 staff have in many cases involved not only the assistants but the heads 

 of departments, and in a few cases the directorship itself. The office 

 has aided, in so far as possible, in the efforts to keep the station forces 

 intact and to fill vacancies with persons of adequate training and 

 ability. 



The great extent to which the results of agricultural investigation 

 have been employed in meeting the present emergency, and have 

 served as the basis for more efficient productive efforts, has empha- 

 sized anew the value of the scientific experiments and investigations 

 made possible by the Federal appropriations for the stations during 

 the past 30 years. 



The chief of the office has kept in close contact with matters per- 

 taining to organization and administration of the stations, and has 

 continued to serve as a member of the committee on experiment sta- 

 tion organization and policy of the Association of American Agri- 

 cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



In accordance with the general plan in operation for several years, 

 volumes 37 and 38 of Experiment Station Record, each consisting of 

 nine numbers and the usual author and subject indexes, were pre- 

 pared during the year. These volumes contain 7,038 abstracts of the 

 world's scientific literature pertaining to agriculture, together with 

 monthly editorials discussing important phases of the developments 

 of agricultural investigation and brief notes on the progress of insti- 

 tutions for agricultural education and research in this country and 

 abroad. 



The total number of articles abstracted was practically identical 

 with that for the previous year. Special attention, however, was 

 given to the selection of material of immediate usefulness under the 

 war conditions. Likewise nearly all of the editorial articles took up 

 some phase of the relations of the war to research in agriculture and 

 the response of research institutions in the war emergency. 



The primary function of the Record is to systematically assemble, 

 classify, and make readily accessible the vast and widely scattered 

 fund of information daily being contributed to agricultural science. 

 The importance of this function is, of course, intensified under war 

 conditions, since the conservation of the time of teachers and investi- 

 gators becomes specially desirable. 



Increasing difficulty has been experienced in filling vacancies on 

 the staff of Record editors. One member of the staff resigned during 

 the year to engage in chemical work in a war industry, and a second 

 member received a commission in the Engineer Corps. A number of 

 vacancies have been filled by the employment of women. 



