EDITORIAL. 7 



ber of other organizations devoted to various phases of agricultural 

 science. 



The establishment of the Office also enabled the Department to 

 give to its constantly increasing multitude of correspondents definite 

 information based on experimental inquiries in many lines not cov- 

 ered by its own investigations. For a considerable period a large 

 share of its work consisted in answering inquiries, but with the exten- 

 sion of the work and organization of the Department such work has 

 been largely assumed by the other bureaus. 



Closely allied to the work of the Office with reference to the experi- 

 ment stations have been its relationships with institutions for agri- 

 cultural education. One of the first pieces of work undertaken by 

 the Office was the preparation of a brief history of agricultural edu- 

 cation and research in the United States for the Paris Exposition of 

 18S9. After the passage of the ]SIorrill Act of 1S90. the Office was 

 made the deiDOsitory of the reports of the agricultural colleges to 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, and through its close association with 

 the Association of American Agi'icultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations was called on to aid the rapidly growing movement for 

 agricultural education in various ways. The director of the Office 

 has served on the standing committee on agi'icultural instruction of 

 the Association for many years, and has been dean of the Graduate 

 School of Agriculture since its beginning in 1902. 



In recent years many of its activities have been conducted through 

 its agricultural education seiwice. which represents the Department 

 in its relations with agricultural colleges and schools at home and 

 abroad. Much attention has been given to improving the courses of 

 instruction in agriculture by reducing the various branches to soimd 

 pedagogical form, the encouragement of agricultural instruction of 

 secondary grade, and the development of adequate graduate instruc- 

 tion. The work of aiding in the development of farmers' institutes 

 was officially undertaken in 1903, when a farmers' institute specialist 

 was appointed, and has since continued with increasing attention to 

 the various other phases of extension work. 



In addition to its general supervision of the expenditures of the 

 experiment stations under the Hatch and Adams Acts, the Office has 

 had in direct charge the management of the so-called insular stations. 

 The fii*st of these was established in Alaska in 1898, followed by the 

 federal stations in Hawaii and Porto Rico in 1901, and that in Guam 

 in 1908. These stations have from the start given much emphasis to 

 special problems, the general policy having been to determine and 

 develop the agricultural possibilities of Alaska, to diversif}- the agri- 

 culture of Hawaii and Porto Eico, and to restore that of Guam to its 

 former importance. Many important results have already been se- 



9G610°— Xo. 1—15 2 



