Z EXPERIMENT STATIOIST RECORD. 



to all the extension work of the Department, and those connected 

 with the administration of the Smith-Lever Act. 



With the exception of the addition of the farmers' cooperative 

 demonstration work which, as is well known, has arisen in the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, and the separation of the irrigation and 

 drainage investigation3 by transfer to the newly expanded Office of 

 Public Roads and Eural Engineering, most of the duties of the 

 Service are those which have been previously conducted by the 

 Office of Experiment Stations. The reorganization involves no 

 radical alterations in personnel or policy except as stated, and the 

 Office of Experiment Stations remains as an integral part of the new 

 and larger organization. The history of this office is coincident with 

 that of the experiment station system in this country, and a brief re- 

 view of its development and activities through a period of nearly 

 twenty-seven years seems opportune at the present juncture. 



The Office of Experiment Stations was organized in 1888 by the 

 late Hon. Norman J. Colman, then Commissioner of Agriculture. 

 It was established primarily as the agency of the Department in 

 carrying out the provisions of the Hatch Act of 1887, especially Sec- 

 tion 3 of that Act which provides, in addition to other requirements, 

 that it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture with 

 reference to the new stations " to indicate from time to time such 

 lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in gen- 

 eral, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the 

 purpose of this act." Specific provision was made for this Avork in 

 the appropriation act approved July 18, 1888, in which $10,000 was 

 appropriated for the purposes enumerated in the above section, and 

 also " to compile, edit, and publish such of the results of the experi- 

 ments made under Section 2 of said Act by said experiment stations 

 as he may deem necessary." 



Even before the passage of the Hatch Act had established the prin- 

 ciple of federal aid to the States for agricultural research, the need 

 of a central clearing house which would aid in joining the separate 

 agi^icultural colleges into a single well-united system had been fore- 

 seen by the Commissioners of Agriculture and many of the institu- 

 tions themselves. The matter had been under consideration at the 

 special conventions of the agricultural colleges and other agricul- 

 tural workers held by the Department in 1872, and subsequently 

 those in 1882 and 1883. At the convention of 1885, called specifically 

 to consider the establishment of closer relations between the Depart- 

 ment and other agricultural institutions, a resolution was adopted 

 recommending the creation of a bureau or division in this Depart- 

 ment which should be the special medium of intercommunication 

 and exchange between the Department and the various institutions 



