18 



instruments through which resenrch in agriculture in this country was prose- 

 cuteil. No one conversant with tlie brilliant achievements of the State stations, 

 and the beneficent influence of these upon the economic agriculture of the coun- 

 try, may doubt the effectiveness of the stations as agents in agricultural 

 research. During this period the stations had a right to expect and they did 

 receive much valuable aid from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, particu- 

 larly through its ability, as a great department of the National Government, to 

 give wide circulation to and general acquaintance with the results obtained by 

 the stations. Within a few yeai's past, however, a number of bureaus of purely 

 scientific research, as related to agriculture, have arisen within the Department 

 of Agriculture, and have been maintained by generous appropriations of money 

 from the National Treasury. The Dejiartment has therefore entered upon — or 

 at least been engaged in to a far greater e.xtent than hei-etofore— a field of en- 

 deavor which formerly was occupied almost exclusi^•ely by the State stations. 



This statement of facts is made by your committee in no spirit of comjilaint — 

 certainly in no spirit of sensitiveness to rivalry. It is freely conceded that the 

 agricultural research work of the Deiiartment of Agriculture is of high quality 

 and value. It is as stoutly maintained that the work of the stations is at least 

 equally so. But, with two agents operating in the same field, common prudence 

 and regard for effectiveness dictate that cai'e should be taken that each singly, 

 or the two combined, should operate with maximum economy and for maximum 

 results. Considered from the point of view of the country as a whole, and bear- 

 ing in mind that the whole is but an aggregation of parts, if a particular 

 research may, all things considered, be undertaken to the best advantage by a 

 local station, it should be given over to the station ; if by the Department, it 

 should be given over to the Depai-tment. There would probaldy Ite no dispute 

 of the soundness of this proi)osition, but there is one factor in the case which 

 seriously disturbs the clearness of vision in discerning the relative suitabilities 

 of the station and the Department in the premises. The De|)artment is com- 

 parati^ely rich, with a readily approachable and generous Congress at its doors 

 and the resources of the Federal Treasury at its back. The stations are com- 

 paratively poor in money, without hope, and perhaps without expectations, in 

 equit.\ , of large aid from their several States, widely scattex'ed and far removed 

 from the ear of Congressional connnittees. It would not be suri»rising, there- 

 fore, if mere possession of the financial ability to do it might lead the Depart- 

 ment to undertake some kinds of research work which the stations are other- 

 wise better qualified to do. There is also danger perhaps that the inability of 

 the stations to compete with the Department in the matter of compensation 

 offered qualified and desirable men may lower the standard or impair the enthu- 

 siasm of service at the stations in such manner as to disqualify the stations for 

 work which otherwise, by reason of their local conditions, they should be better 

 able to do than a single Department at the National Capital. In fine, it is con- 

 ceivaltle that a rich and central agency of research might so overshadow poor 

 and scattered agencies as to seriously impair their standing and efficiency. 

 Your committee, therefore, connnends to the serious consideration of the asso- 

 ciation the whole question of the relations of the State experiment stations and 

 of the Department of Agriculture to the research work in agriculture, which 

 must continue and increase in this country if science is to be made contributory 

 in the fullest measure to our economic agriculture. \Yith a view to laying in 

 some nieasure a foundation for effort on the part of the association in what 

 would seem to be an appropriate direction, and in order that a proper balance 

 between the two great agencies of research might be preserved, your committee 

 suggested to the chairmen of the House and Senate Connnittees on Agriculture, 

 at the last session of Congress, that it might be well for the institutions repi-e- 

 sented in this association to be heard before these committees when the apjiro- 

 priations to the stations and to the research bureaus of the Department of 

 Agriculture were under consideration. Both gentlemen heartily apjiroved the 

 suggestion, and gave it as their opinion that an expression of the views of the 

 stations would be most acceptable and helpful to the committees. Your com- 

 mittee respectfully reconmiends that instruction be given your executive com- 

 mittee to make clear to the proper Congressional committees, if hearings may 

 be secured, the important part taken by the State experiment stations in the 

 agricultural research work of this country, with a view to securing for the sta- 

 tions some measure of equity in the appropriations made for this purpose from 

 the National Treasury. 



The post of Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Agriculture fell 



