182 



National Resources Committee 



Survey, the Naval Observatory, the Bureau of Stand- 

 ards, the Public Health Service, and the Smithsonian 

 Institution is doing an enormous amount of researcli 

 more or less analogous to, and parallel with, work in 

 the universities. In the Department of Labor, the 

 Social Security Board, tlie Bureau of the Census, the 

 Treasury, the Department of Commerce, masses of data 

 of the highest importance to the social sciences are 

 constantly being collected and studied. Increasingly, 

 research is being recognized as essential in these 

 branches of Government. In the National Research 

 Council the Government has an organization through 

 which it can form contacts with the universities and 

 industry in the fields of natural sciences. 



The De'partment of Agneulture. — Perhaps no one 

 research organization is so large or has had so wide 

 and varied e.xperience in developing a variety of tech- 

 niques to deal with research as has the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. Of necessity it has had 

 to deal with 54 separate agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions in the 48 States and 3 areas outside the States. 

 Their work is in many different fields of research and 

 some 4,000 workers are attached to the stations. Much 

 is done outside the experiment stations, in Washing- 

 ton and the States, through the many agencies in the 

 Department. Of Federal, State, and local funds $37,- 

 000,000 is spent annually on agricultural research, an 

 industry amounting to $8,000,000,000 in the United 

 States. Research expenditures thus amount to 0.46 

 percent of the annual income of the industry. 



Out of this experience the Department of Agi-icul- 

 ture has developed seven procedures for dealing with 

 lesearch problems, which are as follows : 



1. Kesearch is carried on by employees in the Department 

 in Washington and on research farms nearby. 



2. In special research laboratories in various States wholly 

 paid for and staffed by the Department. Regular Department 

 funds are granted to bureaus which organize and direct the 

 work, e. g., the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis. ; 

 the Agricultural Waste Laboratory at Ames, Iowa ; and the 

 Sweet Potato Starch Laboratory at Laurel, Miss. 



3. In cooperative regional laboratories located in agricultural 

 regions. Expenses are borne jointly by the States interested 

 and the Federal Department — all cooperating under the lead- 

 ership of a Federal project leader assigned to the regional 

 laboratory. 



In swine breeding research, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ne- 

 braska, and Oklahoma cooperate. The office is at Iowa State 

 College, Ames, Iowa. The research work is conducted on 

 station farms in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and 

 Oklahoma. 



The Soy Bean Products Laboratory is located at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, Urbana, 111. The States of Illinois, Indiana, 

 Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota 

 cooperate with this laboratory. 



4. Through leadership in organizing cooperative research be- 

 tween several experiment stations, where all expense is car- 

 ried by stations, e. g., research on the physical developniisnt 



of college girls. Here the home economics departments of 

 some six or eight stations met under the leadership of the 

 Department, agreed on a plan of study and schedules, and are 

 carrying out comparable studies of the girls on their respective 

 campuses. 



Another investigation on the nutritional status of college 

 VI omen is organized and financed in tlie same way. 



5. Through projects financed by the Adams, Bankhead-Jones, 

 or Purnell Funds, proposed and outlined by the experiment 

 stations in the States and approved by the Department. 

 Before approval the Department assures itself that (a) it Is 

 not duplicating other work; (b) that it is well planned; (c) 

 that it is worth while. Twenty-six hundred projects of this 

 type are under way. 



6. Of the several Federal funds fur agricultural research in 

 the States, only the recent Bankhead-Jones appropriation calls 

 for matching by the States. The Adams, Hatch, and Purnell 

 Funds are free gifts to the States. However, under the 

 stimulus of these funds all but three or four States have 

 appropriated generously to agricultural research. In 1935-36, 

 in addition to the $4,995,000 Federal funds, the experiment 

 stations received $7,282,000 from the States and had from 

 sales, fees, and other sources $4,148,000 additional. With this 

 $11,430,000 of State and local funds, over 4,600 projects were 

 under way. These are independent of Federal supervision but 

 all possible advice or assistance is given by the Department 

 when asked for. It is further noteworthy that by the appro- 

 priation act "the Secretary of Agriculture shall • • • 

 coordinate the research work of the Department of Agriculture 

 with that of the State agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations in the lines authorized in said acts, and make reports 

 thereon to Congress." 



7. Where especially valuable work of broad significance is 

 under way in a station or group of stations, or elsewhere, the 

 Department frequently enters into an agreement with the insti- 

 tutions or directors of the stations to provide additional staft 

 members and help finance the expense of the project. This is 

 frequently done in connection with the stations and occasionally 

 with outside institution.s, e. g.. Harvard University in meteorol- 

 ogy and the National Research Council in highway engineering. 

 A rather good illustration is in corn development. Some years 

 ago 12 experiment stations were found to be working inde- 

 pendently on corn improvement. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture first coordinated the 12 stations in one corn improvement 

 program. The Department then gave assistance in men and 

 money in places within the group where such assistance woiild 

 best promote the program. 



The foregoing methods are of interest both in relat- 

 ing the Government to research in the several States 

 and in securing cooperation between research agencies. 

 Recognized leadership, centralized information, and 

 ability to make grants of funds all seem essential 

 to secure effective cooperation between different 

 institutions. 



Regional coordination. — The directors of the North- 

 eastern States Agricultural Experiment Stations have 

 appointed each director referee in one field, as, for 

 example, animal and dairy husbandry, agricultural 

 economics, poultry, vegetable gardens, entomology, 

 etc. Each director, in the field in which he is referee, 

 is expected to keep in touch with all research in the 



