205 



relationships and such plans of cooperation as will appear advanta- 

 geous 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 disin- 

 tegration, for already there is a growing feeling that agricultural ex- 

 periment 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 differ- 

 ent Divisions of the Department in connection with the different special- 

 ists of the stations. With the multiplicity of workers in any given di- 

 rection 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 suf- 

 ficiently 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 les- 

 sened, if not obviated, by the Hatch bill and the subsequent modifica- 

 tions looking to permanent appropriations to the State stations or col- 

 leges which give no central power at Washington. The question then 

 arises : What function shall the national Department perform ? Its in- 

 fluence and field for usefulness have been lessened rather than aug- 

 mented in the lines of actual investigation in very many directions. 

 Many a State is already far better equipped both as to valuable sur- 

 rounding land, laboratory and library facilities, more liberal salaries 

 and greater freedom from red tape, administrative routine and restric- 

 tions as to expenditures than we are at Washington ; andl cafi not see 

 how the Department's influence is to be augmented outside of those 

 Federal functions which are executive, except as a directing agent and 

 a useful servant. 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 in- 

 stance, of an outbreak of some injurious insect, or in the event of any 

 particular economic entomological question within the limits of the 

 State having such an officer, the United States entomologist would nat- 

 urally feel that any effort on his part would be unnecessary or might 

 •even be looked upon as an interference. He would feel that there was 

 always danger of mere duplication of observation or experiment except 

 where appealed to for aid or cooperation. 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 



