406 EXPEEIMENT STATION EECOED. 



of it is available in no other form. The articles constitute an essential 

 part of the station's permanent records, and hence merit due care 

 and attention to see that they may be readily identified with and 

 accredited to the institution. If, as has sometimes occurred, they 

 have not been accredited to the institution, by footnote or otherwise, or 

 if the station has not followed some sj^stem of keeping track of them 

 so that they can be traced by those interested, the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing a complete record of work performed is much increased. The 

 fact that the stations are state institutions and are required to report 

 upon their activities makes these matters more important than might 

 be the case with other classes of institutions. 



Furthermore, it is important that each station should preserve a 

 file of all of its publications, whether issued by it directly or through 

 a journal. But unfortunately the systematic collection of the sepa- 

 rates of journal articles in the libraries or files of the respective sta- 

 tions has not been a matter of uniform practice, and it is feared 

 that a considerable number of stations lack copies or even a record 

 of these products of their own investigations. It seems desirable 

 also that the annual report of the station should contain a list of these 

 technical papers, and often a synopsis of them. This places them 

 definitely on record and makes it easier to find the references to 

 them. 



Several stations are already publishing such lists, while some are 

 giving greater prominence to this literature. Thus in New Hamp- 

 shire, reprints of the articles are obtained and reissued by the station 

 in a numbered series entitled Scientific Contrihutions. The North 

 Carolina Station has reprinted in its annual report some articles 

 originally appearing in scientific journals. Recently the Maine Sta- 

 tion included in its annual report not only the titles of the papers 

 but a brief abstract in each case. Such practice meets to a consider- 

 able extent the feeling shared by some of the stations that all their 

 work should be published in some form in their own series. 



In what is said as to procedure, it is of course not intended to 

 minimize the position of the author of such scientific papers or to 

 eliminate him from consideration. He deserves the credit and the 

 stimulus which come from publication of his work. As in the con- 

 duct of the work itself, a large measure of freedom is to be expected. 

 But because of its position as a public institution the station needs 

 to be a party in the matter of publication as it is in the general over- 

 sight of the investigations, and the credit to the author loses nothing 

 by association of its name with it. 



The station and the investigator are in partnership in carrying on 

 certain lines of investigation. Both are interested in giving the 

 product of this partnership to the world in a way which will be most 

 effective and bring greatest usefulness. It goes out as a contribution 



