6o 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



selves to the cultivation of agricultural science. It would seem, too, 

 that agricultural colleges or even other institutions of learning, in 

 view of their special interest in the educational aspect of the matter, 

 might very properly establish stations for scientific investigations 

 bearing on agriculture, as has been done by several German univer- 

 sities. Here, however, financial questions would, under present cir- 

 cumstances, be likely to prove a serious obstacle to such a project ; 

 but, whether practicable at present or not, the question of promoting 

 agricultural science in this way is one worthy of thoughtful atten- 

 tion. 



A no less important question than that of the kind of work a 

 station should do is that of who shall conduct its work, and how the 

 station should be organized. Local circumstances will, of course, 

 decide the form which the business organization shall take ; we are 

 concerned here only with the conduct of the actual station-work. It 

 may be remarked in passing, however, that it is eminently desirable 

 to keep the station out of " politics," and free from the control of 

 " rings," and to provide it with an assured income. This much set- 

 tled, to what sort of a man shall we confide the direction of the 

 station ? This must evidently depend on what the station is to be. 

 If its business is to be simply the analysis of fertilizers, etc., what is 

 needed is a man with sufficient technical ability for the work, and 

 whose chai'acter will command the confidence of all parties concerned. 

 For anything beyond this, however, something more than an analyst 

 is needed. 



An impression prevails somewhat widely that because an agricul- 

 tural experiment station is designed to advance agriculture, its direct- 

 or must be, first of all, a practical farmer. It is said, or intimated, 

 that only such a one can be trusted to expend the State's money in a 

 way really profitable to agricultural interests ; and the same feeling 

 finds expression in covert sneers at scientists as " doctrinaires," and 

 "theorists," and "impractical." "We maintain, on the contrary, that 

 the prime requisite in the director of a good experiment station is 

 thorough scientific training. It is not necessary that he possess the 

 highest degree of talent for original research, but a training in the 

 scientific methods of working and thinking is absolutely indispensable 

 to lasting success. That this is true in case the station is to be de- 

 voted mainly to scientific research will probably be admitted at once, 

 but it is equally true when the work to be done is making so-called 

 "practical experiments." A truly scientifically conducted practical 

 experiment differs from those practical experiments which thinking 

 farmers are continually trying for themselves, not in being made on a 

 larger scale, or with a more elaborate plan, or with greater accuracy in 

 weighing and measuring all these differences may exist, but they 

 are differences of degree, not of kind but in being so conducted that 

 at its close it is possible to know Jww far the results can be trusted. 



