OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 179 



in i^lant production (agronomy), which will show the extent of such 

 operations at the different stations as well as the methods pursued in 

 this line of work. It is hoped that such a comparative view of these 

 subjects will be useful in promoting more careful planning of work, 

 more thorough stud}^ of methods, and a better correlation of the work 

 of the different stations. Many of our most efficient station officers 

 are convinced that much more attention should be given to the corre- 

 lation of station work, with a view to the i^revention of duplication 

 and the promotion of a more systematic method of attacking agricul- 

 tural problems. Without doubt there is here an opportunity for the 

 profitable extension of the operations of this Office, but this can not 

 be done without some increase in its resources. 



In some ways the past year has been a notable one in the progress 

 of agricultural research in this country. The results of practical 

 importance already attained have inspired the public with such confi- 

 dence in the value of this kind of investigation that Congress and the 

 State legislatures have been unusualh' liberal to this Department and 

 the experiment stations. At the same time business enterprises 

 requiring scientific and expert knowledge and skill for their most suc- 

 cessful management have been unusually prosperous. The managers 

 of these enterprises have awakened to a much clearer appreciation of 

 the value of the services of such men as are most successful workers 

 in our institutions in agricultural education and research. An increas- 

 ing number of our best workers in these institutions have therefore 

 been given very attractive offers from the business world. So many 

 public and private positions for well-trained and experienced workers 

 in agricultural science and research have been opened that in some 

 lines the demand has outrun the supply. This has led to numerous 

 changes in the personnel of our experiment stations, partl}^ through the 

 transfer of their officers to outside enterprises, and partly through 

 the change of officers from one station to another on account of dif- 

 ferences in salary and other attractions. This is a remarkable state of 

 things, considering the length of time during which our stations have 

 been in operation, and brings them face to face, in a measure, with 

 the same difficulties which attended their earlier oi^erations when, for 

 different reasons, there was an inadequate suppl}" of trained workers. 

 Without doubt the enteriDrise of agricultural research in general has 

 been much strengthened b}^ this recent development, but boards of 

 control would do well to remember that frequent changes of officers 

 inevital)h' weaken a station's operations and that they can not well 

 afford to let thoroughly efficient workers go, especially in cases where 

 small increases in salary or other comparatively trifling inducements 

 would hold them. 



As the work of the experiment station makes a more definite impres- 

 sion upon the public mind and is more clearly differentiated from 

 that of the agricultural college as a whole, the State legislatures are 

 called upon to make special api)ropriations for investigations by the 

 stations. A notable example of this was the action of the recent 

 legislature in Illinois, which approi^riated 146,000 for the next two 

 years to be expended as follows: Experiments with corn, ^10,000; 

 soil investigations, $10,000; investigations in horticulture, $10,000; 

 experiments in stock feeding, $8,000; dairy experiments, $5,000, and 

 sugar-beet experiments, $3,000. This is in line with the development 

 of the stations as distinct departments of the agricultural colleges. 

 As such, the stations are, without doubt, entitled to definite i-ecogni- 

 tion in the budgets of these institutions. A number of States have 



