NATIONAL AID 



bureau, usually in connection with representa- 

 tives of the experiment stations of the several 

 states, plan out the work in a systematic 

 manner. This includes not only the actual 

 demonstration of how a crop should be culti- 

 vated in order to make the most money out of 

 it, but also elaborate systems of records show- 

 ing the steps taken in each individual case. 

 At all points, the aim of the department is not 

 to be paternal in the administration of these 

 farms, but to be helpful ; realizing also that it 

 is the money of the people that is being spent 

 to carry this work forward and that it is in no 

 sense a private enterprise. 



Another important branch of the plant 

 bureau is the investigation into the relative 

 values of plants and the improvement and 

 adaptation of them to new conditions. The 

 bureau also undertakes work in the developing 

 of new fruits, the reclaiming of sand-dunes 

 along the seacoasts by means of sand-binding 

 grasses which thwart the winds and the tides, 

 the restoration of over-grazed ranges, as in 

 Arizona, where the land, once rich in grasses 

 for the herds, rapidly becomes a desert, the 

 danger being averted merely by restricting the 



357 



