i9o6.] Experimental Work in United States. 403 



144,000 in 1906, and although an important part of the latter 

 sum is absorbed by administrative work, yet the balance avail- 

 able for research is very large, compared with the resources of 

 any individual station. 



The natural outcome of this position should obviously be one 

 of mutual help and interdependence, and in recent years there 

 has been an increasing co-operation in experimental work 

 between the Department and the separate stations. The im- 

 portance of this has been recognised by Congress, which in the 

 Appropriation Act of the present year places the aid of the 

 Department at the disposal of the stations in a variety of ways. 

 For instance, in making grants to the Department for con- 

 ducting experiments in animal breeding and feeding, plant 

 breeding and selection, for testing new plants, for studying the 

 influence of environment upon plants,market conditions affecting 

 the fruit and vegetable trade, cereal production and for many 

 other subjects, specific mention is made of the experiment 

 stations as co-operating agencies. This union of facilities and 

 resources may be said to recognize the fact that the Department 

 usually has the advantage in point of funds, in possibly a 

 broader survey of the general field, and it can often place a 

 larger number of specialists and assistants in the field, whereas 

 the stations have the plant for carrying on the work as well as 

 a superior knowledge of local conditions. 



The dissemination of information as to the results obtained 

 also affords an illustration of the way in which the Department 

 and the stations supplement each other's efforts on behalf of 

 the American farmer. As is the case in England, the effort to 

 reac'i the farmer effectively is a most difficult task, but there are 

 n the United States three different agencies, one of which is 

 almost unknown in this country. There are (i) publications;. 

 (2) practical demonstrations ; and (3) talks and addresses at 

 meetings and farmers' institutes. 



Publications —ThQ Department of Agriculture issued in 1905, 

 476 different publications, apart from reprints, and approxi- 

 mately 12^ million copies of bulletins and reports were circu- 

 lated. Nearly one half of these were farmers' bulletins 

 prepared especially for popular consumption. The experiment 

 stations in the same year issued 461 bulletins and reports, of 



K K 2 



