2 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.43 



for the fiscal year 1914 aggregated $2,575,000; it was a little less for 

 the three succeeding years, reached $2,71G,000 in 1918, and $2,734,000 

 in 1919. The increase in this six-year period therefore was less than 

 $1G0,00(), which is quite within the fluctuations in the total State 

 appropriation from year to year. 



The record shows that with 1914 the States ceased adding to their 

 station appropriations, in marked contrast to the practice up to that 

 time. In each of the three five-year periods immediately preceding 

 1914 the total State appropriation practically doubled, or increased 

 in an even greater ratio. Thus, it grew from $168,000 in 1894 to 

 $240,000 in 1899, to $522,000 in 1904, to $1,035,000 in 1909, and to 

 $2,575,000 in 1914. 



The period since that time, it will be noted, corresponds with the 

 World War and the development of extension work under the con- 

 tributory plan of the Smith-Lever Act. There may be no connection 

 between this halt in the appropriation for research and the new 

 demands on the States for offsets to Federal appropriations for ex- 

 tension, but it seems not unlikely that the latter may have had an 

 influence, along with other contributory causes. These offsets have 

 steadily increased, and the}^ have been multiplied by the passage of 

 the Vocational Education Act and the Federal Eoad Act, until they 

 have become a quite considerable charge upon the States. In the 

 case of some States failure to increase the station appropriation may 

 have been less a matter of indisposition than of expediency, when 

 these and the various increased costs of State government are taken 

 into account. The fact that in the aggregate the States have fully 

 doubled the Federal appropriations is evidence of their interest and 

 their disposition to share in the support of the stations. The in- 

 equality of the financial support is however a difficulty which con- 

 stitutes a peculiar hardship to certain of the stations, some of which 

 are outstanding in the character of their work. 



The present State contribution is not to be understood as wholly 

 direct appropriation for the station maintenance. In several in- 

 stances the amount reported is an estimate of the college revenues 

 devoted to research, or the allotment made by the college to the sta- 

 tion. The latter is not alone for investigation, but in several in- 

 stances is in consideration of special services, such as the carrying 

 on of control work, the soil surveys, marketing enterprises, the main- 

 tenance of the college farm, or other features. The direct State 

 appropriations also include considerable amounts of money for in- 

 spection work, and in a number of cases funds for purposes largely 

 on the border line between station and extension work. At several 

 institutions the facilities for instruction so far as the farm, dairy, 



