STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 329 



RELATIONS WITH THE STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The relations between the office and the experiment stations in the 

 several States have remained substantially the same as in preceding 

 years. These relations are both supervisory and advisory. Under 

 the Hatch and Adams Acts the office represents the department in 

 its supervision of the funds granted by the Federal Government for 

 agricultural experiment and investigation in the States, and deals 

 with questions relating to the character of work conducted under 

 these funds, the conditions provided for it, the relations of the sta- 

 tion work to other activities of the institution, and other matters 

 concerning the experiment station enterprise in each of the States. 

 The aim in this supervision has been not merely to audit the accounts 

 and see that the funds were used legally within the terms of the 

 Hatch and Adams Acts, but to preserve the funds to the best use of 

 the station, to stimulate investigation in the highest degree, and to 

 secure conditions which will result in an increasing efficiency of the 

 system of experiment stations as a source of new and tested 

 knowledge. 



Each of the experiment stations was visited and inspected during 

 the year, the accounts examined, and the w^ork of the individual mem- 

 bers of the staff gone over. Conferences were held on various matters 

 relating to the progress of the station, at wdiich matters of general 

 policy and the future development of the station were considered. 

 These annual visits are welcomed by the directors of the stations, 

 which fact illustrates the cordial relations maintained with these 

 institutions. 



The projects conducted under the Adams fund continued to re- 

 ceive careful scrutiny and constructive criticism. This applies not 

 only to new projects which are submitted by the stations, but to the 

 progress of projects which have been under way for a number of 

 years and which freqiiently need strengthening or reshaping to 

 make them progressive in the highest sense. As a whole, however, 

 the projects under this fund, as well as those of the stations in gen- 

 eral, are of increasingly high grade, more, searching in character, 

 and more competent to yield definite answers to specific agricultural 

 problems. 



An unusual number of changes occurred in the personnel of the 

 experiment stations during the year, especially in the directorships. 

 New directors were appointed in Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah. 

 The director of the New York Cornell Station retired at the begin- 

 ning of the year, the director of the Minnesota station at the close of 

 the year, and the director of the Washington station a short time pre- 

 vious to the close of the year. The director of the Kentucky station 

 died early in the year. Directors of these stations have not yet been 

 appointed, their administration being placed in the hands of acting 

 heads. These changes and other changes in the personnel of the 

 staff have called for advice and counsel in filling the positions and in 

 aiding the new^ appointees. 



Considerable attention has been required during the year in the 

 matter of adjustment of salaries between the station funds and other 

 funds of the institution. 



The year marked the close of a decade of operations under the 

 Adams Act. The standards which that act set and which the office 



