I40 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



conditions, not yet entirely removed, that are inimical to scientific 

 efficiency and progress. 



The quality of work accomplished in agricultural science 

 in the United States has been menaced, and still is, by the 

 extraordinary growth of institutions for agricultural investigation. 

 Comparatively few persons outside of those directly interested 

 appreciate how remarkable this development has been. Up to 

 1887 there had been established in the United States only seven- 

 teen experiment stations, no one of which was receiving anything 

 more than meager support. The passage, in 1887, of the Hatch 

 Act, granting $15,000 to each state, or a total of upward of 

 $600,000 for the maintenance of agricultural experiment stations, 

 resulted in the prompt organization of twenty-nine more stations, 

 making forty-six in all. This required the immediate employ- 

 ment by the Hatch stations of nearly four hundred men, a 

 large part of whom had not previously been engaged in the work 

 of inquiry. The number of stations is now fifty-five, which 

 employ nearly eight hundred persons and expend annually 

 nearly $2,000,000. 



During this time the development of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has been even more remarkable. In 1888 

 the congressional appropriation to this department was $1,019,- 

 219; in 1900, $3,006,022, and in 1907, $7,175,690. From June 

 30, 1897, to July I, 1906, the number of employees of this de- 

 partment has increased from 2,043 ^^ 6,242. It is approximately 

 accurate to say that over 4,000 men employed by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the experiment stations are giving their 

 time to the work of research and demonstration, in the support 

 of which between six and seven million dollars are annually 

 expended. This marvelous development along one line of 

 effort has taken place within the past twenty years. 



Unquestionably the quality, if not the integrity, of scientific 

 conclusions, has been endangered by this unprecedented enlarge- 

 ment of funds. In the first place, research efforts of a high type 



