!N'ew York Agricultural Experiment Station. 13 



investigation. A bulletin of one hundred pages, which is merely 

 a compilation of existing knowledge, may be begun and finished 

 within the limits of a few weeks, whereas the data derived from 

 one or more years of laborious observation may be summarized 

 for public use on ten pages. 



Two facts are likely to restrict the literature emanating from 

 this Station to a less quantity than may seem to some to be con- 

 sistent with its equipment. 



(1) It is deemed to be a proper policy on the part of the Sta- 

 tion to issue comparatively few bulletins of compilation of a 

 purely informational character. More or less discussion of ex- 

 isting knowledge is necessary in order to give to the results of 

 research a proper setting and illumination, but it is certainly 

 not the function of the Station, now that its existence and pur- 

 poses are well understood, to engage in the work of popular in- 

 struction. To do this would be to encroach upon the province 

 of the school and of current literature. It might seem justifiable 

 for this Station to digest and summarize for the use of I^ew York 

 farmers the knowledge gained by the stations in other states, 

 were it not for the fact that the U. S. Department of Agricul 

 ture is doing this admirably through the Ofiice of Experiment 

 Stations. It is conceded that when emergencies arise or when an 

 entirely new situation faces the agricultural public, like the sud- 

 den inroad of devastating insects or the establishment of the 

 sugar beet industry, farmers are justified in looking to the Sta- 

 tion for information of a general character. This is a different 

 matter, however, from writing general treatises on a great vari- 

 ety of subjects. This institution, in my judgment, will do well 

 to restrict its efforts quite closely to the work of experimental 

 research. 



(2) It has become imperative that this Station attack some of 

 the more difficult scientific problems relating to agriculture. 

 Many of the " easy questions " have been asked and answered and 

 for this reason, and also because the " hard answers " are the 



