EDITOEIAL. S41 



horticultural work, and in other States for special purposes. Bui the 

 central idea of a strong State station, permanently Located, lm> been 

 preserved and has gained a deeper hold year by year. 



The extension of the station work is only natural, considering the 

 size of many of the States and the demand for station work in various 

 lines which has grown out of the interest and confidence which have 

 been developed. The station bulletins, the agricultural press, and the 

 farmers' institutes are carrying the results of the station work to the 

 farmer. Agricultural experiment associations, numbering in some 

 cases thousands of members, are testing the local application of new 

 kinds and varieties of plants, methods of culture, remedies for diseases, 

 etc. In a number of States the county poor farms are now being 

 utilized as demonstration farms and for testing purposes. But with 

 the growth of the work other agencies will undoubtedly be needed. 

 These the State should provide, but in doing so it should see to it that 

 the union with the central station is preserved, in order that the system 

 may be strengthened and the purely investigational work developed 

 along with the local application. 



A list of the abbreviations used in this journal has been prepared 

 for publication and will soon be issued. The number of periodicals 

 now referred to in the abstract part of the Record, some of them quite 

 regularly and others only occasionally, has become so large as to make 

 a list of the abbreviations used for them almost a necessity to readers 

 who wish to look up articles in the original. The list now includes 

 some sixteen hundred periodicals, which come from many countries and 

 represent at least ten different languages. Some of these are journals 

 issued at regular intervals; others are annuals, proceedings and tran- 

 sactions of societies and other organizations, reports of standing com- 

 missions, State and municipal officers and institutions, and still others 

 public documents issued serially. 



There have been a number of requests that a list of the abbrevia- 

 tions used be published, and the matter has been in contemplation for 

 some time. It is not, however, so simple as might appear. There is 

 considerable confusion in the serial publications of some institutions, 

 successive numbers appearing under slightly changed titles, or pos- 

 sibly as a new series. The names of established journals are chang- 

 ing, and new periodicals are being added constantly. The occasional 

 reports, bulletins, and leaflets of foreign institutions give perhaps the 

 most trouble, owing to lack of consistency in the title. For example, 

 a line of work will be reported one year from an agricultural college 

 by^ a county council, apparently as one of the hitter's publication--, 

 and the next year from the agricultural department of the university 

 with which it appears the college is affiliated; or a series of botanical 

 investigations will be issued for a time by the botanical department of 



