RULINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 235 



The whole responsibility rests upon the State legislature as to how the fund appro- 

 priated by Congress shall be distributed among these various institutions of the 

 State, provided there is one or more agricultural colleges with which an agricultural 

 station is connected, or one or more agricultural stations. 



RULINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ON THE 

 WORK AND EXPENDITURES OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 

 STATIONS. a 



In connection with examinations of the work and expenditures of the agricultural 

 experiment stations established in accordance with the act of Congress of March 2, 

 1887, under authority given to the Secretary of Agriculture by Congress, questions 

 have arisen which have seemed to make it advisable to formulate the views of this 

 Department on certain matters affecting the management of the stations under that 

 act. The statements given below have therefore been prepared to cover the points 

 which seem to require special attention : 



EXPENDITURES FOR PERMANENT SUBSTATIONS. 



This Department holds that the expenditure of funds appropriated in accordance 

 with the provisions of the act of Congress of March 2, 1887, for the maintenance of 

 permanent substations is contrary to the spirit and intent of said act. The act provides 

 for an experiment station in each State and Territory, which, except in cases speci- 

 fied in the act, is to be a department of the college established under the act of Con- 

 gress of July 2, 1862. The objects of the stations, as defined in the first-mentioned 

 act, are evidently of such a character as to necessitate the services of scientific and 

 expert workers. Most of the lines of investigation named in the act are general, 

 rather than local, and involve scientific equipment and work. It is obviously the 

 intent that the stations established under this act shall carry on important investi- 

 gations which shall be of general benefit to the agriculture of the several States and 

 Territories. The sum of $15,000, which is annually appropriated by Congress 

 under this act for each station, is only sufficient to carry out a limited number of 

 investigations of the kind contemplated by the act. 



As the work of the stations in the different States has developed, it has been 

 found necessary to limit, rather than expand, the lines of work of the individual 

 stations. Thorough work in a few lines has been found much more effective and 

 productive of more useful results than small investigations in numerous lines. When 

 we consider the nature of the investigations, the amount of money provided for the 

 w r ork of each station, and the fact that the act expressly provides for only a single 

 station in connection with each college, it becomes very clear that expenditures such 

 as are necessary to effectively maintain permanent substations ought not to be made 

 from the funds granted by Congress to the States and Territories for experiment 

 stations. The maintenance of permanent substations as a rule involves the erection 

 of buildings and the making of other permanent improvements. The sums of money 

 which can be expended for permanent improvements under the act of Congress afore- 

 said are so small that it is clear they were not intended to meet the needs of more 

 than one station in each State and Territory. 



When the legislature of a State or Territory has given its assent to the provisions 

 of the act of Congress of March 2, 1887, and has designated the institution which 

 shall receive the benefits of said act, it would seem to have exhausted its powers in 

 the matter. The responsibility for the maintenance of an experiment station under 

 said act devolves upon the governing board of the institution thus designated. If 

 the legislature of the State or Territory sees fit to provide funds for the equipment 

 and maintenance of other experiment stations and to put them under the control of 

 the same governing board, well and good, but this does not in any way diminish the 



a U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Circular 29. 



