76- REPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



There is still a tendency at some stations to be satisfied with in- 

 conclusive and incomi^lete work. Projects are selected and outlined 

 with considerable definiteness, and then after a year or two's work 

 interest in them appears to be lost or difficulties are encountered which 

 there is a lack of inclination to work out, and it is then proposed to 

 abandon the projects. It must be evident that such work is unproduc- - 

 tive and unprofitable, and illustrates a tendency which should be dealt 

 with by administrative officers. Not all men who are useful station 

 workers are fitted to conduct research work. It should be evident 

 before a man is encouraged to outline a project that he has some 

 research ability which warrants assigning such activities to him. 

 It should be further evident that the investigation he outlines is a 

 practical project in the present stage of knowledge, and is one which 

 he is competent to attack. There must necessarily be many failures to 

 work out in comj^lete and final form the projects which are entered 

 upon, but a disposition to work only on the fringe of a subject and to 

 abandon a project when real difficulties begin to be encountered or 

 when some other matter attracts the interest, will defeat the purpose 

 of serious investigation and should be discountenanced by adminis- 

 trative officers. 



Taken as a whole, however, the Adams-fund projects present a 

 strong list of agricultural investigations, outlined in a thorough 

 manner, with a disposition to derive fundamental facts. The spirit 

 of the men working under this research fund has improved from 

 year to j^ear, and their attitude toward it has become in a large per- 

 centaere of the cases that of the true seeker after tinith. Already 

 many important results are coming out of these investigations, some 

 of which are ready for publication and others merely marking the 

 passage of a certain important stage. Nothing could be more help- 

 ful than a suitable organ for the publication of these investigations, 

 which would stimulate to higher effort and more clearly illustrate the 

 character of agricultural research, as well as give publicity to the 

 findings. 



STATION ADMINISTRATON. 



The question of adequate provision for the administration of the 

 experiment station is a highly important one. Administrative duties 

 are at present quite complex. They involve the intimate super- 

 vision of the internal affairs of the station — the work of the indi- 

 vidual men, the facilities for promoting their efficiency, their rela- 

 tions as a body, the publications of the station, and its financial 

 management; its relations to the institution of which it is a part, 

 to this office, through which general supervision of the Federal funds 

 is exercised, to the people of the State, and in a broader sense to agri- 



