302 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



tioii of the Adams Act to provide the means for carrying on investi- 

 gations of a relatively high order, with a view to the discovery of 

 princijiles and the solution of the more difficult and fundamental 

 problems of agriculture. To this end it is very desirable that care- 

 ful attention shall be given to the choice of definite problems to be 

 studied and the methods by which the solution of these ]jroblems is 

 to be sought. Investigations in connection Avith which there is good 

 reason to expect the establishment of principles of broad applica- 

 tion should be preferred to those which have only local or temporary 

 importance, or from which only superficial results are to be ob- 

 tained." 



The greatest evident difficulties in planning work under this new 

 act were shown by the data collected by the connnittee to be (1) 

 a lack of clear discrimination between investigation in a strict sense 

 and the ordinary experimental work, (2) a lack of definiteness in 

 the purpose and plan of the investigations, (3) a tendency to take 

 up too large or broad problems, and (4) the outlining of too 

 large a number of projects. *■' In the abstract everybody agrees 

 with the purpose of the Adams Act and the desirability of restricting 

 the fund closely to original investigations. AVhen we come to con- 

 crete cases, however, there is very great ditference of opinion." This 

 was attributed in part to a habit of mind wdiich has led to the desig- 

 nation of relatively simple experiments and tests as " investigations," 

 although evidently not so in any real sense, and to a biased judg- 

 ment which places undue stress upon demonstration work and the 

 attainment of immediately practical results. Upon the latter point 

 the committee said : 



" The mental attitude of many of our station workers is wrong. 

 They see only the immediate duty of the station to the local farmer of 

 to-day. They forget that the station has a duty to all phases of agri- 

 culture in a broad sense, and that this may lead to much more perma- 

 nent and widespread benefit. The development of agricultural 

 education has come very largely as a result of station work. The 

 stations have furnished the stock in trade of the agricultural in- 

 structor, and their work has been the means of putting agricultural 

 instruction on a better j^edagogic basis. They OAve a duty to agri- 

 cultural education and agricultural science which it is very important 

 should be more generally recognized. The Adams fund wnll enable 

 them to more largely meet this duty, and at the same time to lay a 

 broader and more substantial basis for the science as well as the art 

 of agriculture. In most States this new fund can safely be used for 

 investigation which will not necessarily give an immediate return to 

 the farmer, for the other funds will usually take care of the demands 

 of the farmer sufficiently to keep him satisfied." 



This is a broad conception of the stations' mission. Without dis- 

 paraging any form of activity in the aid of agriculture, it calls atten- 



