602 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



affected all of the stations except three — Nevada, Tennessee, and 

 Vermont. The number in the case of different stations ranged from 

 one to eight persons; at fully a dozen stations there were five or more 

 positions vacated. 



Many of these changes were naturally of men in the assistant grade 

 or occupying relatively subordinate positions. Such positions are 

 usually regarded as more or less temporary, and changes in them are 

 to be expected. But it is noteworthy that of the total number affected 

 sixty-four were heads of important departments engaged in inde- 

 pendent lines of work. If to this is added the fact that during the 

 fiscal year 1906-7 there were changes in the directors of fourteen sta- 

 tions, it will be seen how serious the interruption necessarily was to 

 the work and the permanent policy of the stations. 



In one station the director, horticulturist, entomologist, agronomist, 

 and dairyman all changed during the year; at another the director, 

 agronomist, and animal husbandman; at another the director, agron- 

 omist, mycologist, and assistants in charge of animal husbandry and 

 of plat experiments; at another the director, agronomist, dairyman, 

 poultry expert, and three assistants; and at still another the director, 

 animal husbandman, entomologist, cotton specialist, and three as- 

 sistants. In several instances nearly the entire staff was wiped out 

 by this drain from other institutions, and had to be renewed. One sta- 

 tion lost its chemist (and assistant), bacteriologist, horticiTlturist, and 

 agronomist; another lost its chemist, botanist (and assistant), animal 

 husbandman, and several experienced assistants; and another its 

 botanist, entomologist, veterinarian, dairyman, and two assistant 

 chemists. The chemist, plant pathologist, horticulturist, and several 

 experienced assistants of one station all changed during the year; the 

 horticulturist, bacteriologist, and three assistants of another, and the 

 animal husbandman, horticulturist (and assistant), animal breeding 

 specialist, and several other assistants at another. 



Thirty-four of the stations lost at least one head of an important 

 department who was in charge of independent work. 



These are rather startling facts. ISIore than a quarter of the sta- 

 tions have had a change of management in the form of a new di- 

 rector: two-thirds of them have had changes in the heads of one or 

 more important departments; and in at least a dozen cases more than 

 half the working force above the assistant grade has moved on to new 

 positions. 



It requires little imagination and no very intimate knowledge of 

 station work to realize the serious interruption and detriment which 

 this is bound to cause. In many cases important lines of work have 

 been started at considerable expense, which it was planned to continue 

 over a term of years before definite results could be expected. "With 

 the change this work is often, and as a matter of fact usually, dropped. 



