OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 245 



appropriated under the act of Congress of March 2, 1887 (Hatch Act), 

 with special reference to the fiscal year ended June 30, 1001, was made 

 during the past yeav in accordance with the authority conferred upon 

 the Secretary of Agriculture by Congress, and a report of this investi- 

 gation was prepared for transmission to Congress, as required bj^ law. 

 This report was published as House Doc. No. 334, Fifty-seventh Con- 

 gress, first session. 



As heretofore, the report was based upon three sources of informa- 

 tion, viz, the annual financial statements of the stations, rendered on 

 the schedules prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture in accordance 

 with the act of Congress; the printed reports and bulletins of the 

 stations, and the reports of personal examinations of the work and 

 expenditures of the stations made during the year by the Director, 

 assistant director, and one other expert officer of the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations. 



The following statements are taken from the report: 



Prohlems of station organization. — Questions relating to the organization of 

 the stations still continue to require the attention of the authorities charged with 

 their management. In a number of States the organization and general attitude 

 of the governing boards are not yet wholly satisfactory. Fur various reasons the 

 boards of control as at present constituted are often not able to give close enough 

 attention to the requirements of the stations to thoroughly understand the nature 

 of their operations and the requisites for their most efficient woi-k. This may be 

 due to the frequent changes in the membership of the board, to infrequent and 

 short meetings of the board, or to mistaken ideas on the part of the board of its 

 proper functions. Under existing conditions no one effectual remedy for these 

 evils is apparent. It may, however, be properly urged that the governors or other 

 appointing officers in the several States should exercise great care in the selection 

 of members of these boards, and should insist that they confine themselves chiefly 

 to the selection of competent expert officers to have the direct management of the 

 stations. It has been suggested that good might result from closer relations 

 between this Office and the boards of control. This could be secured only by hav- 

 ing representatives of the Office attend meetings of the boards. It is possible that 

 an arrangement might be made by which a representative of the Office should 

 visit each station annually at a time when the governing board is in session. This 

 would, however, require a larger expense for traveling than is possible with the 

 present resources of the Office. 



Owing to the increased number of cooperative enterprises between the Depart- 

 ment and the stations, it is more than ever important that the management of 

 the stations should proceed on well-defined and permanent policies, and it may 

 be that the Office could accomplish much good by cultivating closer relations 

 with the boards of control. This matter should certainly be considered in the 

 future plans of the operations of the Office. 



Relation of salaries to other station expenses. — In planning the work of experi- 

 ment stations a common mistake is to attempt work in too many different lines. 

 This necessitates the employment of a considerable number of officers on the sta- 

 tion staff, and thus unduly increases the salary roll. The result is that after the 

 salaries and printing bills are paid, the remainder of the station income, when 

 divided among the different officers charged with making the investigations, 

 affords only a small sum for the general expenses of each investigation. This 

 makes it necessary to conduct the individual investigations on so limited a scale 

 that the results are either entirely unsatisfactory or do not offer a safe guide for 

 practical application. Those stations have had the greatest success in their oper- 

 ations which have so limited the lines of work to their resources as to enable 

 them to conduct investigations and then attempt in a thoroiigh way to reduce 

 the result to a practical basis. In a number of States the stations should either 

 be given larger financial support or else they should contract their operations 

 within narrower lines. Generally speaking, the relation of salaries to other 

 expenses should receive the closer attention of governing boards and general 

 officers of the station. 



Dissemination of results of station u'orTc. — To disseminate the results of their 

 work among our farmers the stations are issuing a great variety of publications 

 and distributing them very widely. These publications not only include detailed 

 accounts of their investigations, but also short summaries of the practical results 



