542 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 275. 



tioiis and much difference of opinion as to 

 what these publications should contain. A 

 large amount of compiled information is 

 still issued. Without doubt, much of this 

 is useful, but it needs still to be remembered 

 that time taken by station officers in pre- 

 paring such material must be deducted 

 from that which would otherwise be de- 

 voted to the work of investigation. Cer- 

 tainly the publications of the stations in- 

 tended for wide distribution among farmers 

 should be carefully prepared, and the re- 

 sults of investigations should be interpreted 

 in a clear and readable manner. It seems, 

 therefore, unwise to make the station bulle- 

 tins the vehicle for the publication of the 

 detailed records of experiments or for the 

 scientific presentation of investigations. It 

 would seem better to reserve these details 

 for the annual report. If it is desirable 

 to keep the publication of detailed records 

 of work more nearlj' up to date this report 

 might be issued in parts, as has been done 

 by a few stations. It would not be neces- 

 sary to distribute this report to the entire 

 mailing list. If this plan were followed it 

 is believed that the station bulletins might 

 be made more acceptable to the farmers and 

 at the same time the detailed records of 

 work could be put in better shape for the 

 use of students and investigators. Prop- 

 erly managed, this plan would result in 

 greater economy as regards expenditures 

 for printing. 



THE INSPECTION SERVICE OF THE STATIONS. 



From the very first the stations in this 

 country have been largely engaged in the 

 inspection of commercial fertilizers, and this 

 work has been so efficiently and usefully 

 conducted that from time to time addi- 

 tional inspection duties have been laid upon 

 the stations. The movement for the estab- 

 lishment of different kinds of inspection 

 service under authority of the National and 

 State Governments is growing apace, and 



and it is very important that the relations 

 of this work to the other functions of the 

 stations should be clearly understood. Soon 

 after the establishment of the stations under 

 the Hatch Act, this Department ruled that 

 the funds appropriated under this Act could 

 not be legitimately applied to pay the ex- 

 penses of the inspection and control of fer- 

 tilizers. The same principle holds good 

 with reference to other forms of inspection 

 service demanded of the stations. While 

 the methods and usefulness of inspection in 

 any particular line are still problematical, 

 it may be justifiable for a station to take up 

 this work to a limited extent, but as soon 

 as it becomes a matter of routine business 

 the State should provide funds for its main- 

 tenance. If it seems expedient that any 

 part of the inspection service should be per- 

 formed by the station under State laws and 

 at State expense, the matter should be so 

 arranged as not in any way to interfere with 

 the investigations of the station. It is a 

 great mistake to divert the time and energy 

 of a competent investigator to the toilsome 

 routine work of inspection service. 



CO OPERATIVE EXPERIMENTS WITH FARMERS. 



The number and importance of the ex- 

 periments which the stations are conduct- 

 ing in co-operation with practical farmers 

 and horticulturists have greatly increased 

 of late. Thousands of such experiments 

 are now annuallj' conducted in the United 

 States. These range all the way from 

 simple tests of varieties of plants to special 

 experiments in the management of farm or 

 horticultural crops, live stock, or particular 

 operations, such as tobacco curing. It is 

 coming to be more cleai-ly recognized that 

 the field operations in agriculture or horti- 

 culture conducted on the station farm need 

 to be supplemented by similar work in a 

 considerable number of localities in order 

 to be of general usefulness to the State. In 

 experiments with orchard fruits it is often 



