January i6, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



33 



direction of the department, and thus help to make it really 

 national, — the head of a vast system that should ramify 

 through all parts of the land. 



"With the different State agricultural colleges, and the 

 State agricultural societies or boards, we have every advan- 

 tage for building up a national bureau of agricul ture worthy 

 of the country and its vast productive interests, and on a 

 thoroughly economical basis, stich as that of Prussia, for 

 instance." 



In short, the view in mind was something in the nature of 

 that which has since been adopted by our neighbors of the 

 north, where there is a central or national station or farna at 

 Ottawa, and sub-stations or branch farms at Nappan (Nova 

 Scotia) Brandon (Manitoba), Indian Head (N.W.T.), and 

 Agassiz (British Columbia), all under the able direction of 

 Mr. William Saunders, one of our esteemed fellow-workers. 

 It was my privilege to be a good deal with Mr. Saunders when 

 he was in Europe studying the experience of other countries 

 in this matter; and the policy finally adopted in Canada as 

 a result of his labors is an eminently wise one, presenting 

 none of the difficulties and dangers which beset our plan, 

 whether as between state and nation or college and station. 



Under the present laws, and with the vast influence which 

 the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations will wield both in Congress and in the different 

 States, there is great danger of transposition, in this agri- 

 cultural body politic, of those parts which in the animal 

 body are denominated "head" and "tail;" and the old saw 

 to the effect that "the dog wags the tail because the tail 

 cannot wag the dog" will find another application. So far 

 as the law goes, the national department, which should hold 

 a truly national position towards State agricultural institu- 

 tions depending on federal support, can do little except by 

 suggestion, whether in the line of directing plans or in any 

 way co-ordinating or controlling the work of the differ- 

 ent stations throughout the country. The men who influenced 

 and shaped the legislation which resulted in the Hatch Bill 

 were careful that the department's function should he to 

 indicate, not to dictate; to advise and assist, not to govern 

 or regulate. We have therefore to depend on such relation- 

 ships and such plans of co-operation as will appear advan- 

 tageous to all concerned, and these can best be brought about 

 through such associations as are now in convention here. 

 Without such plans, there is great danger of such waste of 

 energy and means and duplication of results as will bring 

 the work into popular disfavor and invite disintegration, for 

 already there is a growing feeling that agricultural experi- 

 ment is and will be subordinated to the ordinary college- 

 work in the disposition of the federal appropriations. 



What is true of the national department as a whole in its 

 connection with the State stations is true in a greater or less 

 degree of the different divisions of the department in connec- 

 tion with the different specialists of the stations. With the 

 multiplicity of workers in any given direction in the different 

 States, the necessity for national work lessens. A favorite 

 scheme of mine in the past, for instance (and one, I am glad 

 to say, fully indorsed by Professor Willits), was to endeavor 

 to have a permanent agent located in every section of the 

 country that was sufficiently distinctive in its agricultural 

 resources and climate, or, as a yet further elaboration of the 

 same plan, one in each of the more important agricultural 

 States. The necessity for such State agents has been lessened, 

 if not obviated, by the Hatch Bill, and the subsequent modi- 

 fications looking to permanent appropriations to the State 



stations or colleges, which give no central power at Wash- 

 ington. The question then arises, what function shall the 

 national department perform ? Its influence and field for 

 usefulness have been lessened rather than augmented in the 

 lines of actual investigation in very many directions. Many 

 a State is already far better equipped as to valuable surround- 

 ing land, laboratory and library facilities, more liberal sal- 

 aries and greater freedom from red tape, administrative 

 routine, and restrictions as to expenditures, than we are at 

 Washington; and, except as a directing agent and a useful 

 servant, I cannot see where the future growth of the depart- 

 ment's influence is to be outside of those federal functions 

 which are executive. Just what that directing influence is 

 to be is the question of the hour, not only in the broader 

 but in the special sense. The same question in a narrower 

 sense had arisen in the case of the few States which employed 

 State entomologists. In the event, for instance, of an out- 

 break of some injurious insect, or in the event of any par- 

 ticular economic entomological question within the limits of 

 the State having such an officer, the United States entomolo- 

 gist would naturally feel that any effort on his part would 

 be unnecessary, or might even be looked upon as an inter- 

 ference. He would feel that there was always danger of 

 mere duplication of observation or experiment, except where 

 appealed to for aid or co-operation. This is perhaps true 

 only of insects which are local or sectional, and is rather a 

 narrow view of the matter; but it is one brought home from 

 experience, and is certainly to be considered in our future 

 plans. The favor with which the museum work of the 

 national division was viewed by you at the meeting last 

 November, and the amount of material sent on for deter- 

 mination, would indicate that the building-up of a grand 

 national reference collection will be most useful to the sta- 

 tion workers. But to do this satisfactorily we need your 

 co-operation ; and I appeal to all entomologists to aid in this 

 effort by sending duplicates of their types to Washington, 

 and thus more fully insuring against ultimate loss thereof. 



Status of our Society. 



This train of thought brings up the question of the status 

 of our society with the station entomologists as represented 

 by the committee of the general association. Those of us 

 who had desired a national association for the various pur- 

 poses for which such associations are formed, felt, I believe, 

 if I may speak for them, that the creation of the different 

 experiment stations rendered such an organization feasible. 

 Tour organization at Toronto, and the constitution adopted 

 and amended at the meeting at Washington, all indicate that 

 the chief object was the advancement of our chosen work, 

 and that the strength of the association would come from the 

 experiment-station entomologists. There was then no other 

 organization of the kind, nor any intimation that such a one 

 would be founded. Some of us, therefore, were surprised to 

 learn from the circular sent out by Professor Forbes, its 

 chairman, that the committee appointed by the Association 

 of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, and 

 through which we had hoped to communicate and co-operate 

 with that association, was not in the proper sense a commit- 

 tee, but a section which has prepared (and, in fact, was re- 

 quired by the executive committee and the rules of the 

 superior body to prepare) a programme of papers and dis- 

 cussions for the meeting, to be held at the same time and 

 place with our own. I cannot but feel that this is, in some 

 respects, a misfortune, and it will devolve upon you to de- 

 cide upon several questions of importance that will materially 



