196 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



The committee on cooperative work between this Department and 

 the stations made a report, which was adopted by the association. 

 This report commended the attitude of the Secretary of Agriculture 

 toward closer cooperation between the* Department and the stations, 

 and pointed out the different ways in which the two institutions might 

 aid each other. It also outlined the principles on which, in the opin- 

 ion of the committee, joint work could be arranged and conducted. 



The twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of agricultural 

 experiment stations as State institutions was celebrated at Middle- 

 town, Conn., where the first of these stations was established. On 

 this occasion interesting and valuable papers were presented by Dr. 

 W. II. Jordan, of New York, on American Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations, and by Prof. W. O. Atwater on the History of the Connec- 

 ticut Experiment Stations. 



A carefully prepared and eloquent address on the career of the late 

 Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, was delivered by Dr. G. W. Atherton, 

 of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bernard Dyer, of London, England, attended 

 the convention as the representative of the Lawes Agricultural Trust, 

 and delivered a course of three lectures based principally on the 

 investigations at the Rothamsted Experiment Station of soils which 

 have been in continuous wheat culture. It is expected that these 

 lectures will be published later through this Office. Besides resolu- 

 tions of thanks to Dr. Dyer, the association adopted a memorial 

 expressing its high appreciation of the life and work of the late Sir 

 John Bennet Lawes and his associates at the Rothamsted station. 



RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS. 



During the year the relations of this Office with foreign institutions 

 for agricultural education and research have become more intimate 

 through correspondence and exchange of publications, and much reli- 

 able information regarding these institutions has been made available. 

 A card catalogue of foreign agricultural colleges, secondary schools of 

 agriculture, and experiment stations, giving references to the availa- 

 ble literature on these institutions, has been prepared, the list of for- 

 eign experiment stations has been revised and published, and the 

 work of writing, for publication in bulletin form, an account of the 

 organization, equipment, expenditures, and work of the 700 stations 

 in this list has been nearly completed. Closely related to this work 

 was an article on Agricultural Education in France, written for the 

 Yearbook of the Department, by Mr. C. B. Smith, of this Office. 



Instances of governmental activity for the advancement of agricul- 

 ture are numerous, both in the Old World and in the New. In Russia 

 the ministry of agriculture has inaugurated a system of commissioners 

 of agriculture — one for each of twenty provinces or governments — who 

 will correspond in a general way to our commissioners of agriculture or 

 to secretaries of State boards of agriculture. With each commission- 

 er's office will be connected a corps of agricultural specialists, who will 

 work among the landowners and peasants. 



In England the agricultural-education committee is doing an impor- 

 tant work for agriculture and agricultural education by publishing 

 circulars on various topics and teachers' leaflets on "Nature knowl- 

 edge" (nature study), and the number of private institutions for 

 research has been augmented by the establishment of the Aynsome 

 Experiment Station at Lancashire by Mr. John S. Remington. 



The Austrian Government has recently established several experi- 



