306 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



be undertaken with the present public sentiment, and we must look 

 to States Avhere this sentiment is more advanced and where the de- 

 mands on the station are less insistent. Some of these researches 

 have become indispensable to further progress and are of interest 

 to all the stations, although only a few can enter ujjon them. In 

 some instances we lack both the men and the equipment to carry them 

 on in more than one or tAvo places at the outset, and where these men 

 and facilities exist the great desirability of encouraging develop- 

 ment to the fullest extent seems to need no argument. 



This view was expressed by the section on experiment station work 

 in reference to the investigations upon the principles of animal 

 nutrition made with the aid of the respiration calorimeter at the 

 Pennsylvania Station. The section commended this work in highest 

 terms, recognizing its importance in the development of animal feed- 

 ing; and in view of the special facilities combined at the Pennsyl- 

 vania Station in investigator and apparatus, expressed " its earnest 

 hope that at this time, when plans are being laid for so wide an exten- 

 sion of research in agriculture in the United States under the Adams 

 Act, that the line of research already established by the Pennsylvania 

 Station will be continued and developed to the fullest extent deemed 

 practicable by the board of control." 



The keynote of the discussion at the Baton Rouge meeting was 

 that the provision for genuine research in agriculture had come none 

 too soon, that our ideals should be set high, and that an enlightened 

 public sentiment should be developed in the individual States as a 

 foundation and support for it. In this advanced work public senti- 

 ment must be led. It can not be expected to lead the stations, as it 

 often has in the case of the more practical work. The idea should 

 be spread abroad that they can not solve fundamental problems at 

 short order or get results of worth under high pressure. Given the 

 proper aim, the stations must be allowed to work out the problems 

 of agriculture in their own way. 



