February 10, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



201 



apparent. Everj^ dollar of the fund thus 

 given from the National Treasury is needed 

 for th(jraugli original investigations on be- 

 half of the\ast and varied interests of ag- 

 riculture in this country and the dissemi- 

 nation of the results of such investigations. 

 The more strictly this fund is applied to 

 these purposes the more rapid development 

 will our agriculture have along the lines of 

 permanent success. 



DEMONSTRATIO]Sr EXPERIMENTS. 



As the work of the stations develops it is 

 seen that more adequate provision should 

 be made for the application of the results 

 obtained by the stations in actual practice 

 in different localities, in order that the best 

 methods of local application of these results 

 may be worked out, and that the farmers 

 may be taught how to make the best use of 

 the work of the stations. It is in this direc- 

 tion that there is the greatest need for a 

 generous policy on the part of the States 

 toward the stations. By supplementing the 

 Hatch fund for work of this kind the States 

 in a number of cases have greatly hastened 

 the direct application of the results of orig- 

 inal investigations to actual farm practice, 

 and have done much toward arousing the 

 farmers to a keener sense of the practical 

 value of station work. With the aid of 

 funds furnished by the States and by this De- 

 partment thousands of the more simple ex- 

 periments in the growing of different crops, 

 such as sugar beets, and the use of fertil- 

 izers, have been made by farmers in differ- 

 ent parts of the country. It is much to be 

 hoped that the States will more fully take 

 up this work, and that it will be more thor- 

 oughly organized, as is being done, for ex- 

 ample, in the State of New York, where 

 special appropriations have been made for 

 experiments of this character under the di- 

 rection of the stations. A great deal of the 

 work of the testing of varieties of agricul- 

 tural and horticultural plants, to be of any 



practical value, needs to be carried on in a 

 number of different localities in each State, 

 and this can probably be most economically 

 and efliciently done with the cooperation of 

 intelligent practical farmers and horticul- 

 turists. While cooperative experiments 

 may often be of value in connection with 

 original investigations, they will most often 

 be of use in determining the extent to which 

 the results of such investigations may be 

 applied in actual pi-actice. 



DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION. 



The Hatch Act expressly provides that a 

 portion of the funds granted the stations by 

 the United States shall be expended for 

 printing and distributing reports and bul- 

 letins, but limits the scope of the informa- 

 tion to be thus published to the ' results' of 

 their investigations. The act further grants 

 the stations the franking privilege for the 

 distribution of their publications. Circum- 

 stances have compelled the stations to go 

 far beyond the limit set by the Act of Con- 

 gress as regards the character of the infor- 

 mation which they have disseminated. A 

 number of causes have contributed to make 

 a very heavy demand upon the stations for 

 information regarding every detail of farm 

 theory and practice. The successful issue 

 of many of the investigations of the stations 

 has been a very important factor in creating 

 this demand. There has also been the ne- 

 cessity of giving the farmers preliminary 

 information along the line of many investi- 

 gations, in order that they might clearly 

 understand the practical application of the 

 new results which ^ the stations had ob- 

 tained. But beyond this there has been 

 during the last decade a remarkable awak- 

 ening of our farmers to the desirability of 

 haviug more definite information regarding 

 all matters connected with their business. 

 The result has been that the stations and 

 this Department have been led to publish a 

 vast amount of information, both old and 



