4 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



trod it seems diflicult for many men to pin themselves down again to 

 painstaking; and serious investij^ation of new problems. 



The Office of Experiment Stations has ruled out the purely infor- 

 mation bulletin as far as the use of the Federal funds is concerned — 

 not that there may be no popular accounts of the station Avork and 

 results, but rather that the popular bulletins of the stations shall 

 be confined to such accounts, and the compiled bulletin or circular 

 which makes no reference to the station issuing it and bears no rela- 

 tion to its work shall be segregated as far as expense is concerned 

 from the legitimate JBeld of the station. It has urged, furthermore, 

 that in these popidar accounts of the station work the station should 

 be credited with having furnished the basis for the discussion, by 

 definite reference to its experiments, in order that the account may 

 not appear to be drawn from general sources of information. 



Some little difficulty has been experienced in securing the recog- 

 nition of these general principles, which should leave the station 

 man free for his investigations and experiments in proportion to his 

 salary from station funds, and should present in popular as well as 

 technical accounts of experimental work the evidence on which the 

 discussion rests, crediting the station with its contribution to the sub- 

 ject. In practice the station men continue to be called on for miscel- 

 laneous bulletins bearing no particular relation to their work, the 

 preparation of which is usually a hardship and is an unfortunate 

 interruption. Why should a station horticulturist, for example, who 

 is charged with a large and exacting piece of research which is sup- 

 posed to require most of his time, be expected to issue a comprehen- 

 sive bulletin on the apple industry of his State, a resume of general 

 information on the methods of culture and care of an apple orchard, 

 and similar matters; or a dairyman who is at the head of an experi- 

 mental department devote his time to describing butter making on the 

 farm as his only outgiving of the year? The limited time which 

 such men have for experimental work which will add new facts or 

 applications and be of permanent value is far too precious. 



If our stations generally are ever to become strong experimental 

 and research agencies and put their work on a truly scientific basis, 

 they must be willing to limit the field of their activity in both work 

 ancl publication. A^Hien we look away from the station publications 

 to see what is actually going on at the stations, we are encouraged to 

 find an increasing body of men devoting themselves as far as they 

 are permitted to definite experimental work, a considerable portion 

 of which is of a relatively high scientific character. 



It will be a happy clay for the American stations when the exten- 

 sion departments now being organized in the agricultural colleges 



