1917.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 3 a 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



WM, P. BROOKS. 



ADMINISTRATION. 

 Station Staff. 



The working force of the experiment station during the past 

 year has suffered two especially serious losses in the resignation, 

 effective October 1, of Dr. George E. Stone of the botany de- 

 partment, and that of Mr. A. B. Sturtevant of the veterinary 

 department, effective December 1. Both these men had dem- 

 onstrated much ability as investigators. 



Dr. Stone had been at the head of the department of botany 

 since 1895, and from the first had been exceptionally active as 

 an. investigator. His capacity for close observation and ac- 

 curate deduction from observed facts was quite unusual, his 

 mind exceptionally active and his inventive genius great. 

 These qualities upon a foundation of thorough training and 

 long experience, and with the capacity which he possessed of 

 arousing the interest and enlisting the co-operation of advanced 

 students, made Dr. Stone, in health, a highly fruitful investi- 

 gator. That he found it necessary to tender his resignation is 

 much to be regretted. 



]Mr. Sturtevant, although connected with the station only a 

 little more than a year, had already shown much talent as an 

 investigator, and his work had been characterized by such 

 industry and enthusiasm that his resignation to accept a similar 

 position for the investigation of bee diseases in the Bureau of 

 Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 creates a vacancy which it will be difficult to fill. The course 

 followed by the Federal department practically means that a 

 fundamental, scientific investigation well under way in this 

 station is brought to a premature end so far as we are con- 

 cerned, for the work which has been done is unique, and Dr. 



