24 



nance of other experiment stations and to put them under the control of the same 

 governing V>oard, well and good, hut this does not in any way diminish the respon- 

 sibility of tho hoard to administer the funds granted by Congress in accordance with the 

 provisions of said act. 



The wistlom of Congress in limiting the number of stations to be established in each 

 State and Territory under the aforesaid act has been clearly shown by the exf>eri- 

 ence of the few States and Territories which have attempted the maintenance of 

 substations with the funds granted under said act. The expense of maintaining sub- 

 stations has, as a rule, materially weakened the central station, and the investigations 

 carried on at the substations have been superficial and temjwrary. It is granted that 

 in many States and Territories more than one agricultural experiment station might 

 do ust?ful work, and in some States more than one station has alrea<^ly been successfully 

 maintained; but in all these cases the State has given funds from its own treasurj' to 

 supplement those given by Congress. It is also granted that experiment stations 

 estahlLshed under said act of Congress and ha\-ing no other funds than those pro\-ided 

 by that act will often need to carry on investigations in different localities in their 

 respective States and Territories, but it is held that this should be done in such a way 

 as will secure the thorough supervision of such investigations by the expert officers of 

 the station and that arrangements for such experimental inquiries should not be of so 

 permanent a character as to prevent the station from shifting its work from place to 

 place as circumstances may require nor involve the expenditure of funds in such 

 amounts and in such ways as will weaken the work of the station as a whole. 



As far as practicable the cooperation of indi\-iduals and communities benefited by 

 these special investigations should be sought and, if necessary, the aid of the States 

 invoked to carry on enterprises too great to be successfully conducted witliin the 

 limits of the appropriation granted by Congress under the act aforesaid. 



PURCHASE OR RENTAL OF LANDS FOR AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



This department holds that the purchase or rental of lands by the experiment 

 stations from the funds appropriated in accordance with the proAisions of the act of 

 Congress of March 2, 1887, is contrary to the spirit and intent of said act. The act 

 provides for "paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations and experi- 

 ments and printing and distributing the results. * * * Provided, however, That 

 out of the first annual appropriation so received by any station an amount not exceed- 

 ing one-fifth may be expended in the erection, enlai^ement, or repair of a building or 

 buildings neceasary for carrying on the work of such stations; and thereafter an amount 

 not exceetling five per centum of such aimual aj)propriation may be so expended." 

 The oidy rcfcrcnct; to land for the station in the act is in section 8, where State legisla- 

 tures arc authorized to aj)ply appropriations made under said act to separate agri- 

 cultural colleges or schools cstiil)lished by the State "which shall have connected 

 therewith an experimental farm or station." The strict limitation of the amount 

 provided for buildings and the al)seiice of any provision for the purchase or rental of 

 lands, when taken in connection with the statement in the eighth section, which treats 

 the farm as in a sense a necessary adjunct of tho (iducation'al institution to which the 

 whole or a j)art of the funds ap])ropriat<'d in accordance with said act might in certain 

 Cixses be devoted, jxiint to the conclusion that it was expected that the institution of 

 which the station is a de])artm('nt would supi)ly the land needed for experimental 

 |)wrj)OHeH and that charges for the j)unli;u<e or rental of lands would not be made against 

 the funds ])rovided by Congress for the experiment station. This conclusion is reen- 

 forced by a con.sidenition of a wise and «'coiioniic j)oIicy in the management of agricul- 

 tural experiment stations, espeeially iis relating to ciuH'sin which it might l)e desiml>!e 

 for the station to have land for experimental j)uriKiseH in diff«'n'iit localities. Tho 

 investigations carried on by tho stations in such cast»s being for the direct benefit of 

 agricidture in the localities where the work is done, it seems only reasonable that 



