IISrVESTIGATIONS UNDER THE ADAMS ACT. 75 



thoroughly modern baking and testing laboratory was installed and 

 equipped with electric baking and drying ovens, sponge cases, experi- 

 mental flour mill, and other necessary equipment for investigations 

 in connection with wheat and flour chemistry and technology. 



A new dairy building was completed at the New Hampshire 

 station, and the dairy stables were remodeled at an expense of about 

 $3,000. 



At the Puyallup (Wash.) substation a new building with a small 

 greenhouse attached was erected, at a cost of about $4,500, aj^pro- 

 priated by the State. 



INVESTIGATIONS UNDER THE ADAMS ACT. 



During the year work on 335 projects under this fund was con- 

 ducted at 50 stations. The same high standards are being insisted 

 upon as formerly, and the requirements of the act are becoming more 

 generally understood, so that the supervision of the fund gives less 

 difficulty. There is still a tendency, however, to place on this fund 

 too large a number of projects, and in several cases to include matters 

 which are rather trivial as subjects for an investigation fund. 



In some cases the projects proposed continue to be of much too 

 broad and indefinite a character. They embrace the whole field of 

 research rather than any specific and definite phases of tlxe subject; 

 they aim, not at the scientific solution of a project in agriculture, 

 but rather at the attempt to secure some practical method or result 

 of immediate application without regard to a thorough understand- 

 ing of the scientific basis for the method or the generalizations. 



A recent example of a blanket proposal for studies covering a wide 

 range of subjects is a suggested project on indigenous species of 

 insects attacking agricultural crops. This proposition lacks both 

 the definiteness and the restriction in scope which should characterize 

 a subject for investigation; and as far as any control of the work is 

 concerned, it could be interpreted to cover the whole field of economic 

 entomology as applied to the particular locality. Obviously only 

 occasional observations could be made, for it would be wholly im- 

 practicable with the facilities at the command of any single experi- 

 ment station to investigate this subject as a whole in any systematic 

 or thorough manner. 



A desire is frequently encountered among certain station workers 

 to outline so broad and general a project that they will be free from 

 limitations and can follow their inclination from year to year as to 

 the particular course of their investigations. But in the light of 

 experience it is evident that from the standpoint of the investigation 

 itself, as well as of the administration of the work, men should be 

 held to carefully considered subjects of reasonable scope, definite 

 scientific character, and directed along original lines. 



