EDITORIAL. 709 



1887 that a bill introduced by Hon. William H. Hatch, of Missouri, 

 was enacted by Congress and approved by President Cleveland. 

 Thus came into existence, a quarter of a century ago, that gi-eat arm 

 of the public service, the American agricultural experiment station, 

 Avhich in this relatively short period has given such an impetus to 

 agricultural education and to a more intelligent agriculture, and been 

 a national force for the instruction of the farmer. 



The stations were regarded as state institutions from the beginning, 

 and this subjected them to local conditions, pecuniary, political, and 

 administrative, which for a time retarded their proper development 

 in some instances. In the early period " it was inevitable that there 

 should have been more or less of groping after stability and accurate 

 consciousness of purpose. There was undoubtedly much effort that 

 was unwise, much labor that was useless, much duplication that was 

 unnecessar3% much wastefulness of both energy and means." 



Gradually, however, these conditions were remedied. Greater sta- 

 bility prevailed. The true mission of the station, the necessity for 

 freedom from interference and large liberty in developing its methods 

 and conducting its studies, were recognized and secured. As time 

 passed and their potential capabilities were made manifest, the need 

 developed for larger appropriations and for a more fundamental 

 character of investigation. " In the first place, their resources were 

 inadequate to their needs. States and communities had not yet been 

 quickened to a sufficient supplementing of the initial federal grants. 

 In the second place, the time had arrived when mere experimentation 

 for the repeated corroboration of fairly well established truths should 

 largely cease, and research and investigation for the acquiring of new 

 and larger truths be more extensively prosecuted." 



This resulted in the passage of an act introduced by Henry Cullen 

 Adams, of Wisconsin, which w^as signed by President Koosevelt 

 March 16, 1906. This new act doubled the federal appropriation to 

 the stations in a period of five years, the federal appropriation reach- 

 ing $30,000 to each State in 1911, or a total of $1,440,000 a year. 

 Its terms were so drawn as to restrict the use of the new appropria- 

 tion to the conduct of original investigation and research, as distin- 

 guished from the simpler experiments and trials wliich had been so 

 much in demand. The standards set soon affected the work of the 

 stations as a whole, resulting in a higher grade of product, and led 

 to a sharper definition of their duties as distinguished from those 

 of the teaching departments of the college and the manifold enter- 

 prises for extension teaching. The new provision called for more 

 thoroughly trained men; and the differentiation of duties, with the 

 larger freedom for concentration on research, attracted a class of 

 workers who had heretofore looked askance at the experiment station 

 as a field of activity. 



