Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir, except one small item. There is an increase shown of $203 which is only an apparent increase, by the assignment to the office of this amount that formerly has been charged to the Secretary's office.

Mr. JUMP. Mr. Chairman, that is the distribution of money from the Secretary's office to the various Bureaus to pay the handling charges for supplies. The item for this bureau is $203.

Mr. JARDINE. There is no increase and the decrease, as you see, represents the economy act provisions.

The Office of Experiment Stations represents the department in the administration of these separate acts that we have discussed, the Hatch Act, the Adams Act, the Puerto Rican act and the Alaskan act and the Hawaiian act, and in addition has the responsibility of the two remaining Federal stations, one in Puerto Rico and one in Hawaii. Under the terms of the acts the funds are paid directly to the States, but the Secretary of Agriculture is required to prescribe the form of financial statement, to give advice, assistance, to ascertain each year that each station is complying with the terms of the respective acts and to make a report of the work and expenditures to Congress.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Does he not also approve the program?

Mr. JARDINE. That is included in the ascertainment of whether the terms of the respective acts are complied with.

Mr. BUCHANAN. În other words, the research program must be prepared and submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture, and receives his approval.

Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. As a condition precedent to turning over the money?

Mr. JARDINE. That is right. The procedure in accomplishing this main purpose is, for each State station to submit a proposal for research in written form. It comes to the Office of Experiment Stations. The idea is not to hold an autocratic approval over them, but for the purpose of coordination, and giving back to the States the benefit of what is being done in other States and through correspondence, mainly, making adjustments to put into effect the best methods known and to eliminate duplication as far as practicable. All of the funds of the Purnell and Adams Acts are expended on such projects. There were approximately 1,800 of them that were reviewed, finally adjusted and approved during the past year.

In addition, since 1889, in order to facilitate cooperation and coordination, the office had been responsible for abstracting all publications of the Department of Agriculture and the State stations and as far as possible of foreign countries and issuing these brief abstracts in the Experiment Station Record for use by all of the research workers, to avoid the duplication of abstracting by thousands of workers, and to keep them advised as to what is being done, so that they can secure for further study, if necessary, the publications which pertain to their special work. This is a big activity of the office.

VALUE OF VISITING AND ADJUSTING AFFAIRS OF THE VARIOUS STATIONS

Then, each station is visited. The respective projects are gone over with the workers. The examination is not merely a voucher

[blocks in formation]

examination, but to carry out the intent of the law to ascertain whether the funds are used to good advantage. On the basis of these examinations, the reports including financial and statistical statements, the review of all the publications and the study of projects throughout the year, the report to Congress on the work and expenditures of the stations is prepared.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I was just wondering about the benefit of these visits and examinations. How many times a year does a representative of your office visit each of these stations?

Mr. JARDINE. Ordinarily once. This year there have been adjustments to make and at the request of the State people we have revisited one station; but ordinarily, they are visited just once.

Mr. BUCHANAN. What time of the year is that generally done? Mr. JARDINE. Usually we attempt to make as many of these visits as we can during the last quarter, just before July 1st.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I was wondering if the cost of those visits is justified by the results. What do you accomplish by them? The inspector goes over the work of the institution, does he?

Mr. JARDINE. He goes over the work and he talks over the whole plan and makes adjustments on the ground. He gives them the advantage of the facts that have been gathered and the progress and plans of other stations, which it is difficult to get in any other way.

Mr. BUCHANAN. He would have to be rather a remarkable man to be able to do that.

Mr. JARDINE. Either a remarkable man or a man of years of experience and knowledge of the work of all the stations. A great part of it is experience and familiarity with all the work and results. Mr. BUCHANAN. How many such have you in your bureau?

Mr. JARDINE. I will admit it is a very difficult task for us to take care of this with the force that we have, but I think we have enough key men, about five, and are gradually training other men along that line. They have the background through having reviewed all publications, the abstracting and knowing of the new results gotten throughout the world.

Mr. BUCHANAN. You have 53 stations to visit?

Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Five men could not visit all of them in the last quarter, could they?

Mr. JARDINE. We put in about four or five days at each station. At some of the smaller stations, about three days.

Mr. JUMP. Do you not check their accounts from the standpoint of charges to these various funds?

Mr. JARDINE. We check every voucher.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Is that done here in Washington?

Mr. JARDINE. No. That is done in the field. These funds are warranted direct to the States by the Federal Treasury. They are disbursed on State vouchers. We do not have copies of these vouchers in Washington.

Mr. JUMP. The check is to review what is done with the Federal funds after the money is turned over to them; we check the vouchers to see if they are proper charges against Federal funds.

Mr. JARDINE. We check those funds not merely for the vouchers themselves, but we discuss the project as to what the man has undertaken, what his progress is, right along with the respective expendi

tures and the checking of the vouchers. In any other way we could not carry out the responsibility assigned to the department under the respective acts.

Doctor Woods. The checking of those vouchers could not effectively be carried on anywhere except in the headquarters in the States.

Mr. JARDINE. The examinations could not be carried out in any place except at the headquarters where the men are working. For instance, an item of travel comes up. We have to check it as to the relationship of that item to the specific work being done.

Mr. BUCHANAN. This has been going on some years, has it not? Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Has this checking process resulted in any corrections or the finding of any errors or mistakes or diversion of funds? Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir; not necessarily willful diversion.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I understand.

Mr. JARDINE. Not only has it done that, but it has resulted in adjustments at many stations. I think I am safe in saying that it has that result each year.

Mr. EVANS. At each station that is visited some adjustments have to be made.

Mr. JARDINE. There is rarely a station but what there are some adjustments to be made?

Mr. JUMP. Mr. Chairman, is there not great value in the mere fact that an examination is to be made? In other words, while, as you say, there are practically no wilful irregularities, and none would be expected in a group like this, is there not a great value in the mere fact that there will be an examination by the Federal Government of how the money is used after it is turned over to the State? That is said without reflection on anybody. It applies to our own departmental expenditures as well. There is great value in knowing that the vouchers for our own expenditures are going to be audited. That is accepted everywhere as a fact. Anyone who spends other than his own money should have and should desire a careful audit.

Mr. JARDINE. There is a great value, especially in changing times like these when the stations are called upon to do many things that would be difficult to prescribe exactly in law and there are cases of interpretation and adjustment, sometimes where no two men would interpret it the same way; especially when stations are changing their staff and there are about 3,600 staff members that obtain some part or all of their salary and expenditures for research from these funds. Mr. SANDLIN. What is the total amount of these funds that you are supervising?

Mr. JARDINE. Under the different acts the 1933 total is $4,374,000. Mr. HART. Do you supervise these Alaskan and Puerto Rican stations?

Mr. JARDINE. Yes, sir; that is a part of our responsibility. I might say, however, that we have not been able financially to make the annual inspections during the few years that Alaska and Hawaii have been receiving these funds. I do not see how we can continue the function without at least in shorter periods than has been possible in the last four or five years, having some one go over the situation with those people.

We are administering $4,374,000 of funds, and we are doing the actual administration including all the service work which is done in the interest of all the stations and the department for approximately 2 per cent of the amount administered. We have in addition about 1.6 per cent for all the experiment station record work in the interest. of all the stations and the department. The total is only about 3.6 per cent of the amount to be administered, spread over Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and all of these State stations. It is approximately 3.6 per cent, including all the work of the Experiment Station Record. Mr. BUCHANAN. Of course, if you made no inspections, at the end of the year, they might divert these funds in salaries or otherwise, they might be extravagant in travel. It depends upon the administration of the institution. They might grow up in negligent habits of expenditure of money that would need correction. In other words, this is just a follow-up to see that the law has been complied with and the money properly expended. If you find that it is improperly expended, you make some kind of an adjustment?

Mr. JARDINE. That is right. Here is a difficulty this year. Suppose an institution gets an increased enrollment, as some of them have this year with reduced funds. The funds are budgeted. Let us say that 40 per cent or 60 per cent of the station staff is perhaps also on the teaching staff. These acts provide that these funds are available for research work only. Now, if a man is jointly paid from these station research funds and the teaching funds, and he suddenly finds himself with an increase of 30 per cent load in teaching his time for research is reduced that much and there must be some adjustment in funds, if the terms of these acts are to be carried out. There are many matters of this sort, especially in times like this.

INSULAR AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS

Mr. BUCHANAN. The next item, insular experiment stations, is as follows:

Insular experiment stations: To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to establish and maintain agricultural experiment stations in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, including the erection of buildings, the preparation, illustration, and distribution of reports and bulletins, and all other necessary expenses, $78,130, as follows: $36,270 for Hawaii, and $41,860 for Puerto Rico; and the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to sell such products as are obtained on the land belonging to the agricultural experiment stations in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and the amount obtained from the sale thereof shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States as miscellaneous receipts.

Mr. JARDINE. The following is presented in justification of this item:

Appropriation, 1932.

Appropriation, 1933.
Budget estimate, 1934.

Decrease.

$230, 030

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The decrease of $55,430 is explained as follows: (1) $2,000 decrease to offset the increase for 1934 under the Hawaii station act. (2) $20,000 decrease to offset the total appropriation for 1934 under the Puerto Rico station act.

(3) $30,000 decrease, as it is expected that the transfer or closing of the Alaska, Guam, and Virgin Islands stations will be completed during 1933.

(4) $3,430 reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough.

CHANGE IN LANGUAGE

The omission of the following language is recommended, it being no longer needed: "and $30,000, to be immediately avilable, for salaries, wages, and other expenses connected with the care of property, including all appurtenances thereto, and all equipment and livestock of the experiment stations in Alaska, Guam, and the Virgin Islands until they are transferred or sold: Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to transfer to any Government department or establishment or to local authorities or institutions such property and/or equipment or to sell the same at public or private sale and to pay from this appropriation the salaries of the present employees of said stations appointed from the continental United States, including salaries during such leave as may be granted under the acts approved June 30, 1914, and July 24, 1919 (U. S. C., title 5, secs. 535 and 536), together with traveling expenses of themselves and families, including the transportation of such quantity and character of their personal effects as may be authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture, in returning to the usual port of debarkation in the United States."

WORK UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

The agricultural experiment stations in Hawaii and Puerto Rico were established to determine the agricultural possibilities of the two Territories, to improve and diversify their agriculture, and to develop types of agriculture adapted to different regions.

Hawaii station.-The Hawaii experiment station at Honolulu, which is now maintained in cooperation with the University of Hawaii, is concerned with problems relating to the diversification of agriculture and the establishment of industries other than sugar and pineapple production. These major industries have their own experiment stations. Close cooperation is maintained with them on problems of mutual interest. Soil and crop work, horticultural investigations, crop utilization, chemical studies of soils, plant breeding, forage crop studies, dairying, and livestock management constitute the principal activities of the station. These studies are designed to aid the so-called small farmer as contrasted with the plantation system. In the station work, substations have been established on other islands and at greater elevations than the main station for developing systems of agriculture adapted to large areas that are not now profitably utilized. The possibility of extending pineapple cultivation at about 1,000 feet elevation higher than formerly thought possible has been definitely proven. Through the cooperation of territorial officials and private individuals, experiments have been begun at various elevations up to 5,500 feet. If these prove successful, large areas in the islands can be brought under cultivation. This is very important, as much of the land suited to present agricultural use is under the control of large corporations. Experiments have been begun for the assistance of the coffee industry and a beginning has been made, in cooperation

« AnteriorContinuar »