OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 821 



while it does not prevent him from giving an occasional lecture if he 

 be so inclined and his other duties permit. 



While the shaping up of the extension field is progressing, much 

 remains to be done, especially as regards the uniformity in organiza- 

 tion and the adoption of the most practical and efficient plan. This 

 office continues to favor the arrangement by which the activities of the 

 agricultural college are grouped and differentiated under three heads, 

 namely, research, interior teaching, and extension. The research 

 work is the field of the experiment station, the interior teaching is 

 done by the faculty at the college, and the extension work is per- 

 formed by the extension division. 



Agricultural extension work in this country needs a broader or- 

 ganization, so that all of the agricultural population of the State 

 may be reached and will not be complete until this is accomplished. 

 The immensity of the problem at once shows the inadvisability of 

 burdening the experiment station with any considerable part of this 

 task. When properly organized the three different divisions are 

 coordinate and the work is cooperative. The extension force, in more 

 immediate and general contact with the farmers of the State, dis- 

 covers problems which need solution; these are worked out by the 

 station, and the results in turn are given to the body of agricultural 

 students through the college faculty proper and to the general agri- 

 cultural public by the extension teachers. 



The work in all lines is growing rapidly and the demands far outrun 

 what is possible to accomplish with the limited resources and forces 

 at the disposal of the individual institutions. There is at present much 

 loss of time and energy due to the conditions necessarily involved in 

 the rapid development of -a nation-wide movement. Lack of a sufficient 

 number of well-trained men is causing excessive competition for the 

 successful workers and bringing about far too much shifting of men 

 from one institution to another. Frequent erection and equipping of 

 new buildings are absorbing a relatively large share of the time of the 

 men who should be teaching or experimenting. The simple adminis- 

 trative organization suitable to the day of small things is proving 

 inadequate to meet the requirements in institutions having large 

 annual incomes and dealing with hundreds of resident students and 

 manj-^ thousands of people seeking aid through extension enter- 

 prises. Under such conditions the experiment stations are likely to 

 suffer most from the growing pressure to divert the work of mem- 

 bers of their staffs into other lines than those of research. In many 

 places good research men are being persuaded or compelled to give 

 too much attention to distracting administrative duties or to teaching 

 and popular writing or lecturing. Here and there already even grad- 

 uate students are becoming numerous enough to prove an embarrass- 

 ment to the research departments. The patient and absorbing pursuit 

 of research year in and year out is still very difficult to secure in 

 American colleges and scientific institutions. It is therefore necessary 

 for this office to persist in urging a more definite organization and 

 immediate supervision of the experiment stations with reference to 

 the most efficient phinning and conducting of substantial researches 

 on agricultural problems, the safeguarding of the time and energy 

 of men devoting themselves to research, and the provision of the 

 proper atmosphere, privileges, equipment, and compensation for such 

 workers, regardless of the growing demands for teaching and exten- 



