17B DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



(3) Experiment Station Work and niiscellaneous i)ublieations of the 

 Office, in charge of Mr. W. H. Beal; (4) division of routine business, 

 in charge of Mrs. C. E. Johnston; (5) Alaska Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, in charge of Prof. C. C. Georgeson, with headquarters 

 at Sitka; (6) Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, in charge of 

 Mr. Jared G. Smith, with headquarters at Honolulu ; (7) Porto Rico 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, in charge of Mr. Frank D. Gard- 

 ner, with headquarters at San Juan; (8) nutrition investigations, in 

 charge of Prof. W. O. Atwater, with headquarters at Middletown, 

 Conn. ; (9) irrigation investigations, in charge of Prof. Elwood Mead. 

 As hitherto, certain officers connected with the force at Washington, 

 D.C., have been charged with promoting the interests of our more 

 important outside enterprises as a regular part of their official busi- 

 ness. Thus, Dr. C. F. Langworthy is our local representative for the 

 nutrition investigations, and Dr. Walter H. Evans for the experiment 

 stations in Alaska, Porto Rico, and Plawaii. With the development 

 of the irrigation investigations it has been found necessary and 

 desirable to transfer the headquarters of Professor Mead, the expert 

 in charge, to Washington, D. C, leaving Mr. C. T. Johnston in charge 

 of the station for the supervision of field work maintained at Chey- 

 enne, Wyo. 



As far as practicable the organization of the Office has been put on 

 the same footing as that of other branches of the Department having 

 complex functions. In this way the development of its organization 

 has been made to conform to the prevalent movement within the 

 Department, which has recently led to its partial reorganization under 

 a bureau sj'stem. As it seems clear that this Office has become and 

 is likely to remain one of the main divisions of the Department, it is 

 only just that this fact should be formally recognized either by 

 making it a bureau or by recognizing it as of equal rank with a 

 bureau without changing its name. 



As regards the future development of the Office, it seems to me 

 desirable that its functions should be restricted for the most part to 

 those of a kind of clearing house for the institutions for agricultural 

 education and research at home and abroad, and to the management 

 of the agricultural experiment stations directly maintained by the 

 Federal Government. Its chief business should be (1) to study the 

 general problems involved in the organization and management of 

 various kinds of institutions for the discovery of new knowledge 

 which may be applied to the benefit of agriculture and for the diffu- 

 sion of such knowledge among our agricultural i^eople, and (2) to col- 

 late for publication the results of the work of agricultural institutions 

 at home and abroad. To this would naturally be added such admin- 

 istrative duties as Congress may devolve upon this Department 

 relating to the supervision of national funds appropriated for the 

 maintenance of agricultural experiment stations or to the direct man- 

 agement of such stations under Federal authority. In the past it has 

 been deemed expedient to give this Office general supervision of cer- 

 tain special investigations which were to be carried on largelj' in con- 

 nection with colleges and experiment stations. While administrative 

 reasons may justify this procedure in some cases, it is not in my 

 judgment desirable that this practice should be followed to aii extent 

 which would make the Office pennaiieiilly ivsponsible for the conduct 

 of a considerable variety of sucli investigations. In view of the fact 

 that (piestions relating to the i-corgnnization of this Department are 

 now being discussed, I desire to raise the question whether the time 



