LXVIII REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



research have been opened that in some lines the demand has outrun 

 the supply. This has led to numerous changes in the personnel of our 

 experiment stations, partly through the transfer of their officers to out- 

 side enterprises and partly through the change of officers from one 

 station to another on account of differences in salary and other attrac- 

 tions. This is a remarkable state of things considering the length of 

 time during which our stations have been in operation, and brings them 

 face to face in a measure with the same difficulties which attended their 

 earlier operations, when, for different reasons, there was an inadequate 

 supply of trained workers. 



As the work of the experiment station makes a more definite impres- 

 sion upon the public mind, and is more clearly differentiated from that 

 of the agricultural college as a whole, the State legislatures are called 

 upon to make special appropriations for investigations by the stations. 

 A notable example of this was the action of the recent legislature in 

 Illinois, which appropriated $46,000 for the next two years, to be 

 expended as follows: Experiments with corn, $10,000; soil investiga- 

 tions, $10,000; investigations in horticulture, $10,000; experiments in 

 stock feeding, $8,000; dairy experiments, $5,000, and sugar-beet 

 experiments, $3,000. A number of States recognized the special agri- 

 cultural needs of different localities by appropriations for substations 

 or independent stations devoted to these interests. 



In further recognition of the experiment station as a distinct unit 

 within the college, separate buildings or parts of buildings are now 

 more generally provided for the exclusive use of the station. The 

 movement for the separation of the office of director of the station 

 from that of president of the college has also been advanced by changes 

 in this direction in six States^ leaving at present only eleven States 

 and Territories in which the college president actuall} r performs the 

 functions of director of the experiment station. In a number of 

 instances newly appointed officers of experiment stations have no duties 

 as teachers in the college, and in other instances changes have been 

 made by which the amount of teaching required of station officers has 

 been materially reduced. Experience has each year shown more con- 

 clusively that if station officers are to accomplish the best results in 

 agricultural investigations their research work must be made their 

 primary business before which routine duties of every kind must give 

 way as the conditions of the original work demand. Our most suc- 

 cessful stations are now managed on the principle that they constitute 

 research departments of the colleges; that they are thus at the summit 

 of our system of agricultural education, and that the}^ must be man- 

 aged on the same principles as those upon which the scientific labora- 

 tories in this Department and our leading universities are conducted — 

 that is, their officers must be the best trained experts in their respective 

 lines, and they must be able to devote their time and energy quite 

 fully to their investigations. 



