EDITOEIAL. 811 



Department. Secretary Wilson has directed that a portrait of Mr. 

 Morton be inserted as a frontispiece in the forthcoming Yearbooli, now 

 in press. 



The Sevcntli Annual Report of the Director of the OtRce of Experi- 

 ment Stations brings out tlie fact that much proores.s has l)een made 

 in the direction of cooperation between the agricultural experiment 

 stations and this Department. The lines in which the stations can 

 most ett'ectively cooperate with the Department are being determined, 

 and encouraging progress made in working out the methods of arrang- 

 ing and conducting cooperative operations. Since both the stations 

 and the Department have had enlarged resources it has been possil)le 

 not oid}^ to increase the number of cooperative enterprises, but also to 

 conduct them on a larger scale. At present the stations in 48 States 

 and Territories are cooperating with the Department. This coopera- 

 tion covers a very broad tield, including tests of varieties of grasses 

 and forage plants in many localities, special experiments with grasses 

 and forage plants for the arid regions and the im})rovement of range 

 lands, breeding expeiiments with plants, especially cereals, experi- 

 ments with hybrid orange trees, the culture of sugar beets, dates, and 

 tobticco, the planting of forest trees, the nutrition of farm animals and 

 of man, the gluten content of wheat as affected ])y various conditions 

 of environment, plants poisonous to stock, injurious insects, soil stud- 

 ies, and irrigation pro])Iems. 



In some cases it has been foiuid desirable to form grou])s of stations 

 to investigate some problem ati'ecting a large region. Thus, for exam- 

 ple, a group of stations, in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant 

 Industr3^, is engaged in investigations on the breeding of varieties 

 of cereals adapted to the Northwest In other cases a single station 

 is sufficiently aided by the Department to enable it to ur.dertake the 

 thorough treatment of problems in a special line. Thus, the Penn- 

 S3dvania Station, in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 is preparing to make elaborate researches in animal luitrition, and 

 for this purpose has devised and ])uilt a respiration, calorimeter for 

 exj)eriments with large animals, wliich in size and complexity surpasses 

 any apparatus hitherto used for such experiments. In other cases, 

 two or more branches of the Department combine to work in conjunc- 

 tion with a station on some comi)lex problem. Plans have been made, 

 for exani])le, for an extensive experiment on the problems of range 

 conservation and improvement, in which the Arizona Station will 

 unite with the Bureaus of Forestry and Plant Industry and the Office 

 of Experhnent Stations (irrigation investigations). It is evident that 

 a very great variety of effective coml)inations can )>e made, which will 

 result in a union of forces thoroughly acquainted with local conditions 

 with those having broad views and relations. Such a strong combina- 



