CONVENTION OF COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 418 



irt'iisui-cr. rl. L. Hills, of ^^'I•nl()llt ; hihlioiiTaplicr, A. C. True, of this 

 Oilicc; executive coniniittee, II. C White of Georgia, J. L. Snyder of 

 Miciiigan, ^V. H. Jordan of New York, C. F. Curtiss of Iowa, and 

 W. E. Stone of Indiana. 



In the section on college woi'lc and administi'ation, E. A. Bryan, of 

 AVashington, was chosen chairnian. and II. C. Price, of Ohio, secre- 

 tary. M. A. Scovell was elected chairman of the section on experi- 

 ment station work, and C E. Thorne, of Ohio, secretary. II. J. 

 ^Vaters, of Missouri, and H. T. French, of Idaho, together with the 

 secretary of the section, were made the programme committee. 



The members of the standing conmiittees whose terms ex2:)ired this 

 year were all reappointed for the period of three years. 



SECTION ON COLLEGE WORK AND ADMINISTRATION. 



This section considered three main topics, each subdivided under 

 a number of heads: (1) Administration of the land-grant colleges — 

 organization and classification of the instructional force, control of 

 student activities and student labor. (2) Relation of the land-grant 

 college to the public school system, to the agricultural industries, and 

 to the mechanical industries. (3) Curriculum of the land-grant 

 college — study of home economics in the land-grant college, the short 

 practical course, its place and importance, and agricultural extension. 



There was no stenographic re2:)ort of the proceedings of this section 

 and few formal pa])ers were read, the speakers assigned to the differ- 

 ent topics speaking extemporaneously for the most part. It is not 

 possible, therefore, to give an account of the meetings of the- section. 



SECTION ON EXPERIMENT STATION WORK. 



This section occupied itself principally with questions relating to 

 the Adams Act and agricultural research in general. The first ses- 

 sion was devoted to a general discussion of The Kind and Character 

 of Work under the Adams Act. Dr. A. C. True explained the pro- 

 visions and limitations of the Act, the iDlans for the administration 

 of the funds under it, and some of the difficulties experienced by the 

 stations in inaugurating their new work. 



Dr. II. P. Armsby urged that the stations should in a measure cut 

 loose from the consideration of the legal aspects, and recognize not the 

 necessity, but the opportunity under this Act. lie pointed out that 

 a great deal of our investigation heretofoiv has been directed to ascer- 

 taining certain facts, and he suggested that it might be well to make 

 a distinction l)etween experiments directed to ascertaining facts, and 

 experiments directed to answering the questions how or why — that is, 

 to correlating facts and establishing principles. He laid down the 

 ])roposition that " original research is research directed to the estab- 

 lishment of the underlying principles of agriculture." 



