foil 



Circular No. 8. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C, November W, 19 

 Sir: 



For the purpose of organizing cooperative work in grass and forage plant 

 investigations with the State experiment stations as required by law (House BiD 

 Ni ». 121, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session, making appropriations for the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture), Prof. T. A. Williams, Assistant Chief, Division of Agros- 

 tology, was directed by you, through my recommendation, to visit a number of 

 southwestern and western stations. In order to hasten the arrangements 

 templated, this trip was made before the close of the last fiscal year and the 

 results secured, presented herein, are most gratifying. The publication of tin- 

 report is hereby recommended, not only because it shows the widespread interest 

 in the subject of grass and forage plant investigations, the varied and important 

 problems involved in these investigations, and a system for taking up these 

 problems which will commend itself, but also because it shows more clearly 

 than ever before presented, the actual possibilities of cooperative work between 

 the Department of Agriculture and the experiment stations and affords a hint 

 of a power yet to be realized which the Department of Agriculture and the 

 experiment stations thus allied may have in advancing, through all lin- - 

 investigation, the agricultural interests of the country. As a further result of 

 these efforts to carry out the wishes of Congress in regard to grass and f< 

 plant investigations, articles of cooperation have been signed by the direct) 

 ten experiment stations and approved by you, for experimenting along lines 

 indicated in the subjoined report. 



Heretofore much cooperative work has been carried on between this Division 

 and the State experiment stations in the cultivation of new and untried gn 

 (see BulletinNo. '22), and in the preparation of bulletins, as, for example, Bulletin 

 No. 9, "Grasses of Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado."' by the botanist of the [owa 

 station, and Bulletin No. 13, "The Red Desert of Wyoming and It- I 

 Resources," by the botanist of the Wyoming station: but not until the pn 

 season has any real effort been made to organize a systematic scheme oi 

 tion with stations. The formation, care and management of pastures; the 

 method of restoring the grasses on the great cattle ranges of the West . the i 

 best adapted to the vast areas of alkali lands of the interior; winl 

 the South and Southwest; drought-resistant grasses for arid sections; the 

 soiling crops for the dairy farmer: grasses for sandy soils and binding drifting 

 Bands; and the development by selection of improved varie: 

 forage crops adapted to special conditions and nses are among the more in 

 tant forage problems which have been discussed with the experiment star 

 and in planning this work it has been sought to place with the several stal 

 the line or lines of investigation which seem most imperative in • I hir 



available funds are in no wise adequate to cover the entire field even when a 

 plemented by the small amounts which the stations can use in gra~ 

 plant investigations. The joint work of the Division and stations 

 ing favorably, however, and in what we have attempted to do in this 

 your approval is already assured : and I trust a like approval ^i our eff< Pts will 

 be rendered by the House Committee on Agriculture. 

 Respectfully, 



V 1. LMS< >N-S EtIBK 



Hon. James Wilson, 



S •/' tary of Agriculture. 



