EDITORIAL. 103 



The future usefulness of the stations will depend upon what they 

 discover of permanent value, and this must come largely from the 

 most abstract and profound research; to forget this will be fatal." 



On the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, granting $15,000 annually 

 to each State and Territory for the maintenance of one or more experi- 

 ment stations, the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station was organ- 

 ized by an act of the Connecticut legislature and half the income 

 received under the Hatch Act was granted to this station. Professor 

 Atwater was made director and for fourteen years managed this sta- 

 tion. During this period a relatively large amount of scientific work 

 along chemical and other lines related to agriculture was done b}^ the 

 station with quite limited funds. Of special interest were his studies 

 on the acquisition of atmospheric nitrogen by plants, begun several 

 years prior to the establishment of the Storrs Station and continued 

 as part of the work of that station from 1888 to 1892. 



On the invitation of Commissioner Colman Professor Atwater 

 consented to become the first director of the Office of Experiment 

 Stations, on condition that he should retain the directorship of the 

 Storrs Station and his college professorship. In this capacity, Pro- 

 fessor Atwater established in large measure the policy on which the 

 Office has since been conducted and laid down the lines of its future 

 work. 



In his first report the following statements were made regarding 

 the functions he deemed proper for this Office : 



" The most immediately pressing need seems to be that of a clearing- 

 house and an exchange for the stations. The stations are widely 

 separated; they need to know more about each other's work; they 

 need each other's help, especially that which comes from the inter- 

 change of experience. Much is gained by the proper distribution of 

 Avork and by cooperation where that is feasible. As a clearing house 

 this Office can facilitate intercommunication between the stations, col- 

 late the results of their work, and facilitate its most advantageous 

 coordination. It can serve as an exchange or distributing point for 

 information in two ways, negotiating between the stations and the 

 agricultural public, on the one side, and between the stations and the 

 world of science, on the other. 



" One of the means by which this Department can mediate between 

 the stations and the agricultural public is the issuing of a series of 

 farmers' bulletins, which should collate the results of station work 

 bearing upon special topics, and the teachings of other research, and 

 put the whole into a form so i)lain that the intelligent farmer will 

 understand it. so ])rief that he will read it through, and so practical 

 that he will take it to heart. Thus, Avhile each station is distributing 

 its own results to the farmer of its own State, this instrumentalitv will 



