73 



much stress upon the dissemlpation idea, and have at times become university 

 extension departments of some college or university, and have neglected some- 

 what the investigational work for which they were organized. This charge 

 can not be made against the experiment stations to any extent at the present 

 time. Owing to the wide dissemination of agricultural information through 

 the farmers' institute and through the agricultural press it is unnecessary at the 

 jiresent time that the experiment station should attempt to reach every farmer 

 in the State. Their means are too limited; and rather than divide the funds 

 and cripple the work of investigation it is far wiser to hold very strictly to the 

 lines of investigation, publishing the results in form which will be available for 

 the farmers' institute lecturers and the press. There is a limit to the numl)er 

 of bulletins which can be issued by the experiment stations, and this limit is 

 reached long before the people of the State who need information have been 

 supplied. If the Federal funds are supplemented by State funds, the popular 

 bulletin may be a wise form for disseminating information. But where Federal 

 funds are used for paying the printing bills we question whether the popular 

 bulletin is a wise move. The institute lecturer and the press will give the 

 information a popular form if it is worthy. 



The experiment station may be of value to the farmers' institute workers, not 

 only through experiments which have for their object the determining of new 

 truths, but by those which are illustrative in their nature. Certain facts are 

 well known in relation to agriculture, but these facts are often not adopted and 

 put into actual practice because their value in certain localities has not been 

 demonstrated. 



The effect of tillage is well known to the experiment station worker who has 

 investigated it, but it will be continually necessary to demonstrate so simple a 

 thing as the effects of tillage upon plant growth, even though no additional light 

 is brought to the subject. 



Cooperative experiments between the stations and farmers throughout the 

 State are popular in some sections. These experiments result in the dissemina- 

 tion of information by the stations. They are largely educational in their 

 nature and seldom result in securing any data which is of definite scientific 

 value. Their practical value as educators can not be questioned. Where the 

 Federal funds are supplemented by State funds, so that cooperative work can 

 be looked upon I'ather in the nature of university extension work, having for its 

 object the dissemination of information rather than for pure investigation, this 

 work may become valuable, indeed, as a supplement to the agricultural educa- 

 tion of the State. Where the funds of the station are limited to the Federal 

 appropriation, it seems unwise to spend any considerable amount of this in 

 conducting cooperative experiments with farmers throughout the State. 

 Greater educational results will be secured by cai-efully conducted experiments 

 under the personal supervision of the station force, securing results of practical 

 and scientific value. These results can then be published in bulletins and be 

 given wide circulation by the press or by the farmers' institute lecturer who is 

 not engaged in station work, but who uses as a basis for his lectures informa- 

 tion which has been secured by the experiment station. So far as possible, 

 without interfering with the experiments, the station workers should actively 

 engage in farmers' institute instruction. This is true not only because infor- 

 mation given at fii'st hand can be made especially interesting ; it is true not 

 only because the farmers may be benefited by the instruction which they would 

 receive, but it is especially true because of the benefit the station workers will 

 receive by contact with the farmers throughout the State, who are meeting 

 every day with practical problems which have not yet been solved by any 

 oxperimeut station. The moi^ successful experiment station worker is the one 



