EDITOEIAL. 5 



Of the various lines of work here suggested, the first to be taken 

 up was that of getting into communication with the various agricul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations. One of the earliest steps was 

 the preparation of an address list of the stations. This w^as soon sup- 

 plemented by an organization list, showing the personnel of the in- 

 stitutions, such as has been issued in somewhat modified form ever 

 since. This material, together with historical accounts of the experi- 

 ment station movement, federal legislation and rulings relating 

 thereto, and similar data, constituted Bulletin 1, issued in February, 

 1889. Bulletin 2 was a digest of the annual reports of the stations 

 for* 1888, while other early bulletins dealt with the organization and 

 lines of work in progress in special lines, such as horticulture and 

 botany, reprints of the proceedings of the annual conventions of the 

 Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Sta- 

 tions, etc. In 1890 the publication was commenced of a card index 

 of experiment station literature, now embracing over thirty- five thou- 

 sand entries. The useful series of compilations of analyses and simi- 

 lar data was instituted in 1892 by a compilation of such data for 

 feeding stuffs. Reference may also be m.ade to Bulletin 180, a list 

 of the publications of the experiment stations to June 30, 1906; the 

 monthly list of experiment station publications, begun in 1904; and 

 the large amount of historical and statistical data embraced in the 

 annual reports of the Office. 



The abstract journal referred to was provided in the Experiment 

 Station Record,, the first volume of which appeared in 1889. Thirty- 

 two volumes of this publication have now been completed, the last 

 two volumes of Avliich, representing merely the last fiscal year, con- 

 tain nearly eight thousand abstracts as well as editorials, special 

 articles, and brief notes on important phases of the progress of agri- 

 cultural investigation and science. In addition to comprehensive 

 indexes for each volume, two general indexes have been issued, cover- 

 ing respectively Volumes I to XII and XIII to XXV. The latter 

 index contained fully two hundred thousand separate entries. 



The first farmers' bulletin was published in 1889. The series 

 proved so popular that it was soon transferred from the Office and 

 made a general series for the Department. Nearly seven hundred 

 of these publications have been issued to date, many of them in very 

 large editions and distributed by Members of Congress on a large 

 scale. A considerable number of these farmers' bulletins have been 

 prepared in this Office, notably the series known as Experiment 

 Station Work, of which seventy-six numbers appeared, containing 

 over six hundred articles, based mainly on the practical work of the 

 experiment stations. 



The Office has, indeed, from the beginning been recognized as one 

 of the most active branches of the Department in the dissemination 



