298 EXPERIMENT STATION RECOED. [Vol.36 



prise. Regional studies of farm practice and studies of the efficient use of 

 farm machinery were also cited as desirable. 



Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman addressed the association? ex- 

 pressing his special interest in the kind of work which it represented. He 

 pointed out that if there is to be a permanent agriculture, farm operations 

 must be made profitable and that farming, which too often has been merely an 

 occupation, must become a business. The individual farmer, in his view, ought 

 no more to be expected to be an expert in farm management than in chemistry, 

 plant diseases, or the like, but should receive the benefits of those trained to 

 correlate the many complex factors with which he is called iipon to deal. 



The program also included the following papers : Farm Management Exten- 

 sion, by S. B. Cleland and E. A. Brown ; The Farmer as a Social Institution, 

 by E. A. Goldenweiser ; Climatic Factors in Relation to Farm Management 

 Practice, by J. Warren Smith ; Relation of Agronomy to Farm Management, 

 by C. V, Piper; The Poor Man on Poor Land, by J. S. Gates; Adequate and 

 Economic Farm Buildings, by J. H. Hankinson ; Consideration of a Simple 

 Method of Determining the Relative Profitableness of Different Farm Enter- 

 prises, by D. H. Otis and R. V. Gunn ; Cost Accounting on Farms, hi^ G. F. 

 Warren ; and Farm Management Problems in Horticulture, by L. C. Corbett. 



Reports were received from several committees of the association. The re- 

 port on farm management investigations, R. L. Adams, chairman, summarized 

 the work under way in the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the agricul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations. No work was reported from sixteen 

 institutions, but that of the remainder showed a considerable scope and 

 variety. The report of the committee on extension work, L. H. Goddard, 

 chairman, dealt especially with the collection of farm analysis records and 

 the relations to be observed with the county agents and farm bureaus in 

 carrying on work of this sort. The status of farm management teaching was 

 reviewed in the report of the committee on that subject, of which O. R. John- 

 son was chairman. 



Definitions for the terms " farm management," " animal unit," " family 

 labor," " labor income," " family labor income," "family income," "paid labor," 

 " crop index," " dairy farm," " general farm," " man work unit," and " horse 

 work unit" were proposed by the committee on standardization of nomencla- 

 ture. These definitions were tentatively adopted by the association, final action 

 being deferred until the next meeting. 



An amendment to the constitution providing a third standing committee on 

 farm management extension was adopted. The executive committee was in- 

 structed to confer with representatives of other societies with reference to the 

 joint publication of a journal. 



Officers for the ensuing year were elected as follows: President, H. W. 

 JefCers ; vice-president, F. W. Peck ; and secretary-treasurer, G. A. Billings. 



Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. — The thirty-third annual con- 

 vention of the association was held November 20-22, 1916, at Washington, D. C, 

 with a registration somewhat larger than that of the previous year. Assistant 

 Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman welcomed the members of the association to 

 Washington, and pointed out the important relation existing between the 

 chemist and the people, and also the dependence of the people on the accurate, 

 definite scientific knowledge developed by the chemist. 



The annual address of the president of the association, Dr. R. N. Brackett, 

 reviewed the history of the association from its beginning. He traced its 

 influence on the development of other chemical organizations and activities, 

 the establishment of food and drug standards, and the development of metliods 

 for the control of various products, related either directly or indirectly to 



