BUREAU OP PLANT INDUSTRY, ITS FUNCTIONS AND EFFICIENCY. 5 



It will be seen that our functions fall primarily into two groups, 

 namely, those of an investigational nature and those of an instruc- 

 tional character. It should be borne in mind that in the use of the 

 word " instructional " we do not refer to teaching in the ordinary 

 pedagogic sense, but rather to the bringing home to the farmer of the 

 information acquired through research, experiments, and in other 

 ways. We would therefore eliminate at this point two fields of activ- 

 ity, one of which has fallen to the lot of other bureaus, while the other 

 has been occasionally urged upon various branches of the Govern- 

 ment. I refer to regulatory or police duties and the duties that would 

 be involved in case of the organization in Washington of anything 

 in the nature of a national university requiring lectures to students 

 on the part of our men along the lines of their fields of research. It 

 has always seemed to me that regulatory or police duties as they must 

 necessarily be conducted by the Government and the giving of such 

 lectures to bodies of students are incompatible with the best and most 

 effective scientific work, such as is demanded of the department men. 

 I do not wish this to be understood as a sweeping statement applicable 

 to all institutions alike, but I do think it peculiarly applies to the 

 Department of Agriculture, where opportunity is given research 

 workers to come in close contact with those from whom inspiration 

 may be drawn. 



Research, therefore, must constitute the comer stone of our struc- 

 ture—research, furthermore, unhampered by the necessity of fitting it 

 into any scheme of regulatory or teaching functions. Here, again, 

 we are confronted with another vital issue, and that is the proper 

 appreciation of the aims and objects of research as it should be con- 

 sidered by us. There would seem to be no place in the department, 

 or anywhere else, for that matter, for what has from time to time been 

 known as science for science's sake. To work for the discovery of 

 truth for the mere pleasure of looking at it and admiring it as truth 

 is, to say the least, an anomaly in this age. It appears, therefore, 

 that we are particularly concerned in the discovery of principles; and 

 this leads us to the next step, namely, the working out of proper 

 methods of applying these principles, that is, experimentation. 



Finally, we are concerned with the application of the most promis- 

 ing results from both research and experimentation in ways that will 

 best serve to secure their full value. The problems connected with 

 organization and coordination in the field of research are not dim- 

 cult, nor is it difficult to connect research with experimentation. 

 From here on, however, we are confronted with numerous questions 

 as to the best methods of getting the acquired information to the 

 people. I think it may properly be said that the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, or at least some of its original units, was the pioneer in 



[Cir. 117] 



