EDITORIAL. 403 



journal is now the joint official organ of this Department and the 

 Association, with an editorial board drawn equally from each, and 

 with department and station papers received and published on equal 

 terms. Eeference to it was made by Dr. Pearl, of the editorial board, 

 in a paper at the Association meeting. 



Articles have already been published or accepted for publication 

 in the Joui^al from eighteen stations, indicating that it is meeting 

 a real need in their work and is to receive their support in increas- 

 ing measure. This is distinctly encouraging, for as Dr. Pearl stated, 

 "in the editing of the Journal the attempt is being made to set a 

 standard as to scientific content and literary form for the papers 

 which shall be as high as the highest maintained by independent 

 scientific journals, whether in the field of pure or applied sciences. 

 . . . For the first time it provides a medium of publication alto- 

 gether worthy of the best American work in agricultural science." 



Beginning with Volume 5, issued in October, the Journal becomes 

 a weekly in order to accommodate the increased material presented 

 for publication. This will often have the effect of insuring greater 

 promptness in publication. 



The practice of outside publication is one which has been followed 

 to a greater or less extent ever since the stations were started. Most 

 of the earlier stations, it will be recalled, printed their bulletins in 

 newspapers or the agricultural press, giving them regular serial 

 numbers. In this way a large number of people were reached 

 promptly'' and at small expense, but at an inevitable sacrifice as 

 regards the permanence of the bulletins themselves. Periodicals of 

 this sort are not usually preserved, and to-day it is practically im- 

 possible to assemble a file of these earlier bulletins. It is only by 

 good fortune and a rare foresight on the part of the stations that a 

 fairly complete collection was brought together by the Office of Ex- 

 periment Stations, and this could not be duplicated if destroyed. 



Since the passage of the Hatch Act, with its definite provision for 

 the publication of bulletins and reports and their free transmission 

 under frank, the bulk of the experimental work has been published 

 by the stations themselves. Within recent years, however, there has 

 been an increasing tendency to look to the various scientific journals 

 and similar agencies for the reporting of some of the scientific and 

 technical material. For this there are several reasons. The stations 

 are employing larger staffs and attacking a greater number and 

 variety of research problems, and in consequence are accmnulating 

 more results for dissemination than ever before. More of their 

 studies are necessarily of technical scientific character. To a greater 

 extent the stations are rapidly becoming research institutions, which 



