186 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



tendents of gardens, grounds, and buildings, apiarists, herdsmen, etc. Three 

 hundred and twenty-seven station officers do more or less teaching in the colleges 

 with which the stations are connected. 



The activity and success of the stations in bringing the results of their work 

 before the public continues unabated. During the year they published 886 annual 

 reports and bulletins, which are many more than are required by the Hatch Act. 

 These were supplied to over half a million addresses on the regular mailing lists. 

 A number of stations supplemented their regular publications with more or less 

 frequent issues of press bulletins. These are short popular articles which are 

 prepared at little expense to the station, but which, through the medium of the 

 local agricultural press, reach a wide circle of readers and bring the station and 

 the practical results of its work pointedly before the public. 



The stations are being consulted more and more by farmers, and the information 

 given is of the most varied character. This necessitates a voluminous and con- 

 stantly increasing correspondence. Station officers come into personal contact 

 with farmers at farmers' institutes, where they make addresses and answer ques- 

 tions. Many persons are thus benefited by the stations' work who would not 

 otherwise be reached. 



The results of station work are further given wide publicity by the general 

 agricultural press. These papers not only give numerous popular accounts of the 

 work of the stations, but they often employ station officers to answer questions 

 of correspondence and as special contributors. Station officers are also frequent 

 contributors to scientific journals. A number of books by station officers has 

 been published during the year. 



COOPERATION OF THE STATIONS WITH THE DEPARTMENT. 



The number and variety of cooperative enterprises between the 

 different Bureaus and Divisions of this Department and the experi- 

 ment stations have been greatly increased during the past year. 

 Much progress has also been made in determining the principles on 

 which successful cooperation must be based and the best methods of 

 arranging and conducting such operations. Experience has shown 

 the desirability of a thorough preliminary discussion of the cooperative 

 plans and the final making of a definite formal contract for the work 

 to be actually undertaken. It has also been made clear that such 

 contracts should be made through the directors of the stations and 

 the officers of this Department having general responsibility for the 

 work to be undertaken. The plan which is now generally followed 

 in arranging for cooperation is substantially as follows : 



Through preliminary correspondence or personal conferences the 

 officers of the Department and the stations immediately concerned in 

 the proposed cooperative enterprise discuss the terms of cooperation, 

 with the understanding that their action is in no way binding on either 

 the Department or the station. When the plan of cooperation has 

 thus been devised a tentative contract is drawn which is submitted 

 to the director of the station and the chief of the Bureau or Division 

 of the Department having general charge of the work. After the con- 

 tract is reduced to a form satisfactory to both these parties it receives 

 their signatures, and is then submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture 

 and becomes effective through his approval. It is understood, how- 

 ever, that as far as this Department is concerned no actual operations 

 will be begun under such a contract until the proper commissions and 

 letters of authorization for the expenditure of funds have been issued 

 by the Department in the usual form. Copies of these contracts are 

 filed in this Office as well as in -the offices of the contracting parties. 

 Tli is Office also keeps a record of all cooperative enterprises between 

 the Department and the stations and aids the officers of the Depart- 

 ment and stations in arranging the details of the cooperative agree- 

 ment whenever its assistance is sought. Whenever new enterprises 



