REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL 



RESEARCH. 



To the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations: 



The Commission appointed by authority of a resolution passed by the 

 Convention of 1906, to consider the organization and policy that should 

 prevail in the expenditure of public funds for agricultural research, and 

 kindred matters, begs leave to make the following report : 



The Commission, consisting of David Starr Jordan, Stanford Univer- 

 sity, California, chairman. Whitman Howard Jordan of Geneva, New 

 York, (elected as secretary), Henry Prentiss Armsby, State College, 

 Pennsylvania, GifFord Pinchot, Washington, D. C, and Carroll David- 

 son Wright, Clark College, Worcester, Massachusetts, has held sessions 

 on Apr. 6th and 7th and Nov. 24th, 1907, at Washington, D. C. 



The following letter from the President 'of the Association gives a 

 statement of the problems at issue : 



Ithaca, N. Y., April 2, 1907. 

 President David Starr Jordan, 

 Waldorf Astoria, 

 New York City. 



Dear Doctor Jordan : 



In response to your request for instructions as to the work of the 

 Commission, I can best reply by quoting the resolution under which 

 the Commission is created : "That there be appointed by the incoming 

 President of this Association a Commission consisting of five persons, 

 two representing the research efforts of this Association, one repre- 

 senting the United States Department of Agriculture, and two repre- 

 sentative scientific men not connected with official agricultural investi- 

 gations, the duty of which shall be to inquire into and report to this 

 Association the organization and policy that in the opinion of the 

 Commission should prevail in the expenditure of public moneys pro- 

 vided for scientific experimentation and research in the interests of 

 agriculture, to the end that such funds shall be applied in the most 

 economical, efficient, and worthy manner to the production of results 

 of permanent value." 



This resolution is specific as to the subject of inquiry and the 

 object of inquiry. The subject is experimentation and research in the 

 interests of agriculture so far as it is founded on public money; the 

 object is to make inquiries and to express to the Association an opinion 

 of the organization and policy that should prevail in the expenditure 



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