EDITORIAL. 1 103 



It is evident that the results of experiment station work are beginning" 

 to have a broad effect upon our agriculture. This is seen in such 

 matters as the more intelligent use of fertilizers, the reorganization of 

 dairy farming aud dairying on a scientific basis, and the widespread 

 use of fuugicides, insecticides, and other means for the repression of 

 diseases of plants and insect pests. Very largely under the guidance 

 of the stations the diversification of agriculture is proceeding in many 

 regions where hitherto one or two crops have been the main reliance of 

 the farmer. Much has also been accomplished in showing how former 

 wasteful methods of farm management may be done away with, and 

 how a variety of by-products of the farm may be utilized to reduce the 

 net expense of the production of the great agricultural staples. 



Ten years ago we were obliged to rely very largely on foreign sources 

 for information regarding the composition and digestibility of feeding 

 stuffs, but to-day we have abundant American data for the compilation 

 of standard works on the feeding of animals under American conditions, 

 and along with the more scientific study of animal nutrition there has 

 been a large amount of painstaking and useful investigation of the 

 practical and economic usefulness of a great variety of American feeding 

 stuff's in all sorts of combinations. And going somewhat outside of the 

 range of work for which our stations were originally established, an 

 increasing amount of study has been devoted to the problems of human 

 nutrition. Thousands of analyses of American food materials have 

 been made, a considerable number of dietary studies have been con- 

 ducted, and somewhat elaborate studies on metabolism and the con- 

 servation of energy in the human organism have been prosecuted with 

 marked success. Congress and some of the State legislatures have 

 recognized this as a legitimate sphere for the work of the stations, and 

 the direct bearing which much of this investigation has upon the more 

 purely agricultural problems is each year more clearly recognized. 



The ten volumes of the Record just completed contain abstracts of 

 3,063 bulletins and 394 reports of American experiment stations, 900 

 publications of the United States Department of Agriculture, and 4,323 

 articles relating to agricultural investigation at experiment stations 

 and similar institutions in foreign countries. These abstracts occupy 

 6,994 pages of the Record, and required in their preparation the review- 

 ing of 285, 623 pages in the original publications. The bibliography of 

 the current literature is rendered more comprehensive by the noting of 

 14,539 articles, mostly foreign, which are either not abstracted or only 

 quite briefly. The original articles in the Record, consisting of 167 

 editorials and 78 special articles, comprise 1,285 pages. The news items 

 and miscellaneous notes, of which there are a total of 1,069, occupy 203 

 pages. This material has been indexed with sufficient detail to make 

 it quite convenient of reference in the 10 index numbers, including both 

 author and subject entries, which comprise nearly 900 pages of double- 

 column matter. 



