New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 47 
I have been impressed more and more each year with the desira- 
bility, nay almost the necessity, of cooperation between stations in 
order to accomplish satisfactorily certain kinds of work. This 
cooperation should be, however, of a voluntary character, leaving 
each station its own independence. While cooperation might be 
wisely directed by a central authority, yet as between the stations 
themselves it is wise that no authority be assumed by any single 
station. The study of the influence of climate can scarcely be carried 
forward, or at least can be carried forward but with great difficulty 
and uncertainty, in one locality; and there are many questions relating 
to the climatic influence upon plants that we should know definitely 
about. The deskability of cooperative work may be catalogued as 
follows: 
1. Meteorological work should be carried forward at all the stations 
under like conditions of exposure and record, in order that the results 
gained at various places may be truly comparable. 
2. Analytical results should be tabulated in the same manner at 
each station. 
3. A few kinds of plants should be grown at the various stations 
from seed of the same variety supplied from the same source. 
4. There should be an agreement upon the methods of sampling 
in certain kinds of work. 
5. A single problem for investigation should be annually agreed 
upon in which all the stations should take part. 
6. There should be an annual meeting of directors for the purpose 
of discussing experimental problems and offering suggestions for 
mutual advantage. 
An agricultural museum is one of the necessities for a proper study 
of agriculture, for without such aid we cannot hope to thoroughly 
understand either animal or vegetable problems. The station has not 
the means nor the room to enable a collection to be made or pre- 
served, and perhaps it would not be desirable to make an adequate 
attempt even if means were more ample. A museum should be some- 
thing more than a collection of curiosities. Such is the difficulty of 
preserving biological specimens that we cannot expect to have many 
complete collections. If the National Museum would attempt this 
work, the one collection at Washington would be sufficient for the 
needs of the whole country, if supplemented by smaller and local 
collections at our various agricultural colleges or experiment stations. 
At the present time I know of no collection in America which is suffi- 
cient to enable the complete study of one single vegetable under 
culture, or one single animal included in our farm economy. 
