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portion of this work will be done under Professor Atwater's charge at Middlctown, 
Conn., but a good deal of it will be carried ou at different points in the country. It 
is hoped that some of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations will be able 
to take up work in this line, and their cooperation will be sought in so far as seems 
desirable in view of their facilities for this kind of research and the demands of the 
work in which they are already engaged. 
The schedules for the financial reports of the stations for the present fiscal year, 
as required by Congress, hare been prepared and distributed. An effort has been 
made to make a schedule which would show how the mouey has been expended and 
which would at the same time accommodate itself to ordinary methods of book- 
keeping and not impose unnecessary labor on station accountants. The schedules 
for this year are in a sense tentative, and it is hoped that the station officers will be 
free to make suggestions for their improvement. It is expected that the financial 
reports will be accompanied with clear and detailed statements of the work of the 
station for the same period. It is believed that a clear presentation of expenditures 
and work will greatly strengthen the position of the stations before Congress and 
the country. 
The experience and correspondence of the Office of Experiment Stations bring 
out certain criticisms of station management to which it may be profitable for me 
to briefly advert, provided it is clearly understood that I am not finding fault, but 
seeking to help the cause. Perhaps one of the most frequent and serious criticisms 
of station management which is brought to the attention of the Department is that 
in the conduct of college and station there is a mingling of college and station 
funds to the undue advantage of either the college or the station. It is easy to see 
how this idea may be causelessly entertained, owing to the intimate relations which 
must necessarily exist between the college and the station. At the same time, the 
criticism serves to emphasize the desirability of making as broad a distinction as 
practicable between the work of the college and the station, so that it will be clear 
to all fair-minded observers that each institution is doing its ow r n work without 
trenching upon the province of the other. 
Another vexed point is the question of inserting in station publications what are 
practically advertisements of private concerns. This has been most often done by 
the use of pictures bearing the trade-mark or names of manufacturers. This is 
usually justified on the ground that the station is thus enabled to give the farmer 
useful information without which the investigations of the station in certain direc- 
tions would not be practically effective. This practice has, however, excited serious 
criticism, and it is very doubtful whether the information thus given is of sufficient 
importance to compensate for the risk growing out of charges of partiality to pri- 
vate interests. 
Another matter which perhaps deserves more consideration than it has received 
relates to unity in the management of the station considered as a public institution. 
In the conduct of station business and in the issuing of publications it has sometimes 
appeared that the person doing the work or the author of the bulletin was for the 
most part individually responsible for what he did, and that in case of mistake or 
mismanagement the director, or even the board of control, did not have or feel any 
particular responsibility in the matter. It is believed that this lack of unity is a 
weakness in station management. One way in which this is illustrated is in the form 
and general make-up of station publications; that is, in certain of these publications 
it would appear that different officers had each contributed their part and that no 
one felt called upon to do any editing or had considered how the publication as a 
whole would impress the reader. It is believed that the highest interests of the 
stations will be promoted by making the public feel that they are permanent and 
solid public institutions, w r orkiug steadily and consistently for the benefit of agri- 
culture. The workers may change, but the institution itself should jmrsue itspro2>er 
course without intorruptiou or deviation. 
L 
