RULINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 237 



which will be required for experimental purposes. Experience shows that in most 

 cases the stations have had no difficulty in securing such land as they needed, with- 

 out expense, and it is believed that this may be done in every case without inju- 

 riously affecting the interests of the stations. 



EXPENDITURES BY AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS FOR CARRYING ON FARM 



OPERATIONS. 



This Department holds that expenses incurred in conducting the operations of 

 farms, whether the farms are connected with institutions established under the act 

 of Congress of July 2, 1862, or not, are not a proper charge against the funds appro- 

 priated by Congress for agricultural experiment stations in accordance with the act 

 of Congress of March 2, 1887, unless such operations definitely constitute a part of 

 agricultural investigations or experiments planned and conducted in accordance 

 with the terms of the act aforesaid under rules and regulations prescribed by the 

 governing board of the station. The performance of ordinary farm operations by an 

 experiment station does not constitute experimental work. Operations of this char- 

 acter by an experiment station should be confined to such as are a necessary part of 

 experimental inquiries. Carrying on a farm for profit or as a model farm, or to 

 secure funds which may be afterwards devoted to the erection of buildings for 

 experiment station purposes, to the further development of experimental investiga- 

 tion, or to any other purpose however laudable and desirable, is not contemplated 

 by the law as a part of the functions of an agricultural experiment station estab- 

 lished under the act of Congress of March 2, 1887. Section 5 of that act plainly 

 limits the expenditures of funds appropriated in accordance with said act to "the 

 necessary expenses of conducting investigations and experiments and printing and 

 distributing the results." 



FUNDS ARISING FROM THE SALE OF FARM PRODUCTS OR OTHER PROPERTY OF AN 

 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



This Department holds that moneys received from the sales *>f farm products or 

 other property in the possession of an agricultural experiment station as the result 

 of expenditures of funds received by the station in accordance with the act of Con- 

 gress of March 2, 1887, rightfully belong to the experiment station as a department 

 of the college or other institution with which it is connected, and may be expended 

 in accordance with the laws or regulations governing the financial transactions of 

 the governing board of the station, provided, however, that all expenses attending 

 such sales, including those attending the delivery of the property into the posses- 

 sion of the purchaser, should be deducted from the gross receipts from the sales and 

 should not be made a charge against the funds appropriated by Congress. 



LIMIT OF EXPENDITURES OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS DURING ONE FISCAL YEAR. 



This Department holds that expenses incurred by an agricultural experiment 

 station in any one fiscal year to be paid from the funds provided under the act of 

 Congress of March 2, 1887, should not exceed the amount appropriated to the station 

 by Congress for that year, and especially that all personal services should be paid 

 for out of the appropriation of the year in which they were performed, and that 

 claims for compensation for such services can not properly be paid out of the appro- 

 priations for succeeding years. The several appropriations for experiment stations 

 under the aforesaid act are for one year only, and officers of experiment stations 

 have no authority to contract for expenditures beyond the year for which Congress 

 has made appropriations. 



This is plainly implied in the act aforesaid, inasmuch as section 6 provides that 

 unexpended balances shall revert to the Treasury of the United States, "in order 

 that the amount of money appropriated to any station shall not exceed the amount 

 actually and necessarily required for its maintenance and support." The annual 



