It is the policy of Congress to continue the agricultural research at State agricultural experiment stations which has been encouraged and supported by the Hatch Act of 1887 [7 U.S.C. 361a et seq.], the Adams Act of 1906, the Purnell Act of 1925, the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935, and title I, section 9, of that Act as added by the Act of August 14, 1946, and Acts amendatory and supplementary thereto, and to promote the efficiency of such research by a codification and simplification of such laws. As used in this Act [7 U.S.C. 361a et seq.], the terms “State” or “States” are defined to include the several States (including the District of Columbia), Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. As used in this Act [7 U.S.C. 361a et seq.], the term “State agricultural experiment station” means a department which shall have been established, under direction of the college or university or agricultural departments of the college or university in each State in accordance with an Act approved July 2, 1862, (12 Stat. 503), entitled “An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territo­ries which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts” [7 U.S.C. 301 et seq.]; or such other substantially equivalent arrangements as any State shall determine.

It is further the policy of the Congress to promote the efficient production, marketing, distribution, and utilization of products of the farm as essential to the health and welfare of our peoples and to promote a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life as indispensable to the maintenance of maximum employment and national prosperity and security. It is also the intent of Congress to assure agriculture a position in research equal to that of industry, which will aid in maintaining an equitable balance between agriculture and other segments of our economy. It shall be the object and duty of the State agricultural experiment stations through the expenditure of the appropriations hereinafter authorized to conduct original and other researches, investigations, and experiments bearing directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry of the United States, including researches basic to the problems of agriculture in its broadest aspects, and such investigations as have for their purpose the development and improvement of the rural home and rural life and the maximum contribution by agriculture to the welfare of the consumer, as may be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States.

Moneys appropriated pursuant to sections 361a to 361i of this title shall also be available, in addition to meeting expenses for research and investigations conducted under authority of section 361b of this title, for printing and disseminating the results of such research, retirement of employees subject to the provisions of section 331 of this title, administrative planning and direction, and for the purchase and rental of land and the construction, acquisition, alteration, or repair of buildings necessary for conducting research. The State agricultural experiment stations are authorized to plan and conduct any research authorized under section 361b of this title in cooperation with each other and such other agencies and individuals as may contribute to the solution of the agricultural problems involved, and moneys appropriated pursuant to sections 361a to 361i of this title shall be available for paying the necessary expenses of planning, coordinating, and conducting such cooperative research.

Sums available for allotment to the States under the terms of sections 361a to 361i of this title, excluding the Multistate Research Fund, State Agricultural Experiment Stations, shall be paid to each State agricultural experiment station in equal quarterly payments beginning on the first day of October of each fiscal year upon vouchers approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. Each such station authorized to receive allotted funds shall have a chief administrative officer known as a director, and a treasurer or other officer appointed by the governing board of the station. Such treasurer or other officer shall receive and account for all funds allotted to the State under the provisions of sections 361a to 361i of this title and shall report, with the approval of the director, to the Secretary of Agriculture on or before the first day of December of each year a detailed statement of the amount received under provisions of said sections during the preceding fiscal year, and of its disbursement on schedules prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. If any portion of the allotted moneys received by the authorized receiving officer of any State agricultural experiment station shall by any action or contingency be diminished, lost, or misapplied, it shall be replaced by the State concerned and until so replaced no subsequent appropriation shall be allotted or paid to such State.

Bulletins, reports, periodicals, reprints of articles, and other publications necessary for the dissemination of results of the researches and experiments, including lists of publications available for distribution by the experiment stations, shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States. Such publications may be mailed from the principal place of business of the station or from an established subunit of said station.

Nothing in sections 361a to 361i of this title shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing between any of the colleges or universities under whose direction State agricultural experiment stations have been established and the government of the States in which they are respectively located. States having agricultural experiment stations separate from such colleges or universities and established by law, shall be authorized to apply such benefits to research at stations so established by such States: Provided, That in any State in which more than one such college, university, or agricultural experiment station has been established the appropriations made pursuant to sections 361a to 361i of this title for such State shall be divided between such institutions as the legislature of such State shall direct.

The Congress may at any time, amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of sections 361a to 361i of this title.

The Secretary of Agriculture may furnish to such institutions or individuals as may care to buy them copies of the card index of agricultural literature prepared by the Department of Agriculture in connection with its administration of the Act of March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven [7 U.S.C. 361a et seq.], and the Act of March sixteenth, nineteen hundred and six, and the Acts amendatory of and supplementary thereto, and charge for the same a price covering the additional expenses involved in the preparation of these copies, the money received from such sales to be deposited in the Treasury of the United States as miscellaneous receipts.

There is authorized to be appropriated the sum of $50,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station and/or other agencies in making investigations and experiments in dairying and livestock industries and of the problems pertaining to the establishment and development of such industries, including cropping systems, soil improvement, and farm organization studies of such industries, and for demonstration, assistance, and service in developing the agriculture of the Sand Hill region of the Southeast.

There is authorized to be appropriated each fiscal year necessary appropriations to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to carry on the cooperative experiments contemplated by section 385 of this title.