180 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



recognized the value of the experiment stations by appropriations for 

 substations. It is still, however, an open question whether appro- 

 priations for special investigations which may be conducted in differ- 

 ent localities, according to circumstances, would not be more advan- 

 tageous to agriculture than local substations. 



There has recently been good progress in the recognition of the 

 experiment station as a distinct unit within the college by the pro- 

 vision of separate buildings or parts of buildings for the exclusive 

 use of the station. In Nebraska a building costing $35,000 has been 

 erected for the use of the experiment station. At the Louisiana State 

 station a new laboratory building has been devoted exclusively to 

 station purposes. In Pennsylvania a separate building for investi- 

 gations on animals with the respiration calorimeter has been erected. 

 In Alabama a new analytical laboratory has been provided for the 

 station. In Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, 

 Texas, and Kansas separate offices and laboratories for the station 

 have been reserved in buildings erected for the use of the college. 

 In this way material additions have been made, the facilities for sta- 

 tion work in a number of States have been improved, and the impor- 

 tance of the station as a distinct department of the college has been 

 greatly enhanced. 



During the past year the office of director of the station has been 

 separated from that of president of the college or university in four 

 States — Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina. In New 

 Mexico and Tennessee, where the president retains the -directorship, 

 a vice-director has been appointed to have general charge of station 

 business. In South Dakota the president of the college has recently 

 been made acting director of the station, but it is understood that 

 this is only a temporary arrangement pending the election of a new 

 director. In eleven States and Territories the college president at 

 present performs the functions of director of the experiment station. 



In a number of instances newly appointed officers of the experi- 

 ment stations have no duties ps 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 

 is each year showing more conclusively that if station officers are 

 to accomplish the best results in agricultural investigations their 

 research work must be made their pi-'mary business, before which 

 routine duties of every kind must give way as the conditions of the 

 original work demand. Our most successful stations are now man- 

 aged on the principle that they constitute university departments of 

 the colleges, that they are thus at the summit of our system of agri- 

 cultural education, and that they must be managed on the same prin- 

 ciples as the great scientific laboratories in the universities are con- 

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

 their respective lines, and they must be able to devote their time and 

 energy quite fully to their investigations. They should not be 

 expected to do any considerable amount of teaching, especially in the 

 elements of the sciences. If they go into the class room at all, it 

 should be rather to lay before advanced students the methods and 

 results of the investigations which they are conducting. Undoubtedly, 

 the financial exigencies of many of our agricultural colleges will for 

 some time prevent the attainment of this ideal in station management, 

 but we may reasonably expect that wherever increases in the resources 

 of these institutions. will permit, changes in this direction will be made 

 in the management of the stations. 





