EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 41. November, 1919. No. 7. 



The question of the name, the composition, the organization and 

 authority of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations has been a fruitful one for discussion from 

 time to time. At intervals considerable attention has been given to 

 these matters. Changes have been made in the constitution as the 

 need for them became evident, and as new features of the college 

 work came into prominence they have been brought within the pur- 

 view of this organization. Meanwhile the association has gone on 

 for thirty-three j-ears steadily growing in strength, influence, and 

 usefulness, and been a large factor in the unfolding and development 

 of the program of the land-grant colleges. Its meetings have been a 

 great clearing house for ideas and plans relating to the whole field 

 and function, means and ends, of this great group of institutions. 



The association has been in many ways a unique organization. Ad- 

 ministrative officers and their subordinates, heads of the different 

 branches and experts, have counseled together freely, been stimu- 

 lated and restrained, given broader vision tempered by sound judg- 

 ment and expediency. Every deserving cause or proposal has been 

 assured a hearing. It has been a singularly free and democratic 

 organization, representative of the spirit of these public institutions 

 and the novel character of their undertaking. There can hardly be 

 doubt that these things have helped to make the institutions what 

 they have been — steadily progressive without radicalism. The asso- 

 ciation has formed a vital part of the National system in this period 

 of evolution and development. 



The Chicago convention marked a change in this body which 

 affects the name, the representation, and the internal organization, 

 and places matters of policy and legislation more definitely in the 

 hands of the college executives. Under the new or largely revised 

 constitution which was adopted, the Association of Land-Grant 

 Colleges becomes a body composed exclusively of these institutions 

 represented by their presidents. The only exception is the experi- 

 ment stations receiving the benefits of the Hatch Act but existing 

 separate from the colleges. These heads of the institutions con- 

 stitute the "executive body," which is charged with all legislative 

 matters relating to the association. There is provision for a series 



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