demoralizing to research effort where a number of research workers share an office. The opportunity for continuous effort may be even less if the office is a laboratory shared with graduate students and assistants, as sometimes happens.

Thirteen institutions out of 29 reporting on the point show 85 per cent to 100 per cent of the research staff provided with individual office space; 10 institutions show 50 per cent or less of the research staff thus provided; and 6 report 60 to 80 per cent. Where 50 per cent or more of the research staff are without space to which they can retreat for undisturbed work, improvement in working conditions would seem important. Conservation and effective use of staff time is quite as vital as scrutiny of other expenditures, but is not so easy to check. Productive effort, not merely clock hours, is the end to be sought.

This view apparently is not shared by all institutions reporting. Seven showing 60 per cent or less of research workers provided with individual office space state that housing facilities are reasonably adequate. On the other hand, however, 6 institutions showing 75 per cent or more of the staff provided with individual office space report a need for more space in the best interest of efficient work. The further fact that a number of leading institutions have made provision for every research man in this regard is significant.

Laboratories.-Research in agriculture, in the future as in the past, will involve both field and laboratory work. That the use of the laboratory has increased and will continue to increase relatively is probably a safe generalization. The need for laboratories has greatly increased in recent years, not only for strengthening research along lines previously under way but for problems and groups of problems new in character. Grading, processing, and standardization of agricultural products, for example, require laboratory facilities of many kinds. Problems of harvesting, storage, ripening, and transportation in relation to quality, likewise, have brought new laboratory needs, as have new uses of products and by-products. In every major field of agricultural research the laboratory is of increasing importance as problems become more complex and difficult.

Twenty-four of thirty-nine institutions reporting state that laboratory facilities are not adequate to meet present needs. Fifteen institutions report present facilities adequate for present needs. The number of laboratories and total space available at present vary so largely with the requirements of individual institutions that comparisons are of little value. Illinois with a total of 186,101 square feet of laboratory space, and California with 182 laboratories and a total of 53,300 square feet exclusively for research, report present facilities adequate for present needs. Minnesota with 49 labora

111490°-30—VOL II- 44

tories and a total of 20,868 square feet of space exclusively for research, reports need for more laboratories for important lines of research. Kansas with 36 laboratories and 17,036 square feet, Florida with 52 laboratories and a total of 19,090 square feet of space exclusively for research also state that they need more laboratories. Not all institutions will require laboratories of as many kinds or as large in total space as the institutions listed. The cases mentioned, however, indicate to some extent the laboratory facilities which may be needed if agricultural research is developed to meet imminent problems.

Cold-storage facilities.-Research problems of agriculture which require cold storage with adequate control of all factors have greatly increased in number. The probability is that they will continue to increase and that proper facilities of this kind may be a factor in the character and standards of research in any subject-matter department. The need can be met in part, no doubt, by individual modern refrigeration units. There is much work, however, which will require larger, stationary storage facilities specially planned for research work. The survey returns indicate that this growing need is generally recognized. Fifteen institutions report facilities owned or rented as reasonably adequate at present. Three of these have additional storage facilities in prospect. Nineteen institutions report need of additional modern facilities for research under way or contemplated. Careful study of the space reported by subject-matter departments supports this conclusion.

Greenhouse space. As with laboratories, so with greenhouse space. More problems in more fields of research each year require methods and control not practicable under field conditions. As in the case of laboratories, greenhouse facilities at present available, as well as present needs, vary among institutions. Comparison of one with another has little practical significance. In the survey returns, 15 institutions report that greenhouse facilities are reasonably adequate for present needs. Nineteen report that space is inadequate. In both groups additional space is planned for construction in the near future.

The University of California with some 55,000 square feet, Illinois with 41,615 square feet, and New Jersey with 11,250 square feet exclusively for research, are among the institutions reporting adequate facilities for present needs. Six others of this group have space between 5,000 square feet and 8,500 square feet, exclusively for research, and a varying amount of space used jointly with resident teaching. Omit California, Illinois, and New Jersey, and the average for the group reporting space reasonably adequate is about 4,800 square feet exclusively for research.

The group reporting inadequate space includes Iowa with 14,575 square feet, Kansas with 11.095 square feet, Purdue with 12,700 square feet exclusively for research. Additional facilities are planned for Iowa and Purdue. Four others in this group report present space of 6,500 to 7,600 square feet, exclusively for research. Eleven have less than 4,000 square feet each.

While the problem is one for the individual institution, there should be general recognition of the importance of such facilities in agricultural research. The figures given may be helpful to administrative officers in checking as to adequacy of present space and the much-increased space which may later be needed. The situation might be kept in hand somewhat better if greenhouse space available were assigned primarily by approved research projects rather than permanently to a department.

Twenty-six of thirty institutions report such permanent assignment. Eight report assignment by projects and 18 a combination depending upon the nature of work in question. Idle space is not productive and sometimes is as unsightly as vacant lots are. Permanent assignment of space regardless of current needs may be wasteful of facilities needed by others.

However important laboratories and facilities other than land may be, or may become, there will always be many problems of agricultural research that require land, if their solution is to be developed with reference to practical application. Existing systems as to the amount of land, its location, and ownership are shown in the following table for 39 experiment stations reporting on this question in full or in part. There have been changes, no doubt, since the data were submitted. The essential points of policy, needs, and relationships, however, are unchanged.

GROUP II. AVAILABLE LAND REPORTED INADEQUATE FOR RESEARCH PROGRAM