State Experiment Stations

The State agricultural experiment station is usually an integral part of the land-grant college. It is financed by State appropriations and Federal grants-in-aid. Usually it is located with the other units of the college or university on the same campus. A few States have two more-or-less independent stations. Most States have substations, working on the special problems of other parts of the State, but under the control of the main station.

The directors of these stations report to a State governing board, which appoints them, directly, or indirectly through the president of the college or through the dean of agriculture and the president. The directors are State officials. Even though they handle Federal funds, made available by the Congress as grants-in-aid for research, the States may appoint whom they please as long as the funds are handled competently within the broad area of purpose and intent provided by law. Annually the Secretary of Agriculture must certify to the Secretary of the Treasury that the funds are being so handled for the States to receive their grants. It is a function of the Office of Experiment Stations of the Department of Agriculture to consider and approve projects of the State experiment stations in order to assist in coordination of the work among States and to insure compliance with the law.

Formerly the Department of Agriculture was looked upon primarily as an agricultural research agency; yet it had other functions, which have grown enormously in recent years. The State experiment stations have grown steadily, along with college teaching and extension, or farm advisory services, in the land-grant colleges.

Besides financial support to the Department, the Congress has made various provisions from time to time for financial grants to the State experiment stations to supplement their State funds. This has been both necessary and logical. Through national taxation the cost is equitably distributed; by grants-in-aid to the State institutions, the control of the Work has been vested in people close to the problems.

The detailed history of the growth of these institutions, and their record Of solid accomplishment, is an interesting and revealing tribute to our democracy, although quite beyond the scope of this discussion. A complex set of relationships among the Federal and State research groups has gradually evolved.

Dependence on cooperation among scientists for achieving coordination, rather than on central administrative control, is the distinguishing feature of our system of agricultural research. Strictly administrative direction is decentralized among the States. In actual practice, each research unit within the Department of Agriculture, and within most State experiment stations, has a wide latitude of freedom in the conduct of its research program.

Two circumstances make this necessary. First, our country reaches across a whole continent and has within it such a variety of lands—so many combinations of climate, soil, and topography—that no one group, however diligent, could possibly grasp the detail of our local farm problems. Nor can scientific research be closely supervised, like most other activities. In the search for new knowledge, no one can predict just what will happen or when. In most lines of work a few failures, or even one, would disqualify a man, while the very best scientist trying to develop a superior strain of wheat or a method for controlling some insect, fails to reach his objective most times he tries. Occasionally he has a success. That one may return several thousandfold for all his work.

Control of Research

The people, through their representatives in State legislatures and the Congress, strongly influence the relative emphasis given the individual lines of research through the distribution of appropriations. Sometimes, items of popular interest receive undue emphasis at the expense of more important fundamental research, but, on the whole, the agricultural research program has benefited from this procedure; it has been forced to keep close to the real problems of the people. At least once a year in formal budget hearings, and much oftener in letters, in interviews, and other contacts, men responsible for various lines of work give congressional committees an accounting of their stewardship, explain the degree of progress, propose new projects. They have a sympathetic, thorough, and strict audience; each respects the responsible role of the other, and out of the exchange comes a wholesome contribution to the national wellbeing. Thus Congress has a sentient, important role in our research program, more vital and productive, perhaps, than many Americans realize. Excellent teamwork between scientists and legislators is becoming increasingly important. Thought must be given to ways for broadening the scope of individual appropriation items to allow greater discretion to the scientists themselves; holding scientists accountable for their use of public funds; and avoiding unreasonable dictation as to what scientists shall investigate. Yet the public must always guard itself against any "aristocracy of scientists," if not directly in control, perhaps as a servant for some determined minority. So far no serious problem of this sort has appeared, but it might, as the importance of science grows.

Research at the experiment stations is concerned with local agricultural problems primarily, but not exclusively. The problems are brought to their attention by farm groups or by workers in the State extension or advisory services; for instance, county agricultural agents. Scientists assist the county agents and other educators in supplying information for farmers and developing demonstrations. In fact, often certain researches are conducted on operating farms as well as on special experimental farms. Perhaps one of the most useful devices of all is the demonstration farm in which all practices are brought together, in combination, to achieve the optimum in efficiency. This technique has developed remarkably in the past 10 years, as in the Tennessee Valley, and promises to increase the effectiveness of research enormously.

Many farm problems extend far beyond the boundaries of individual States, which cut across soil boundaries and type-of-farming areas. Some are national in scope. These must be dealt with by research groups operating on a broader basis than a State. Such groups are commonly made up of scientists from the State experiment stations and the Department of Agriculture.