414 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



There was quite general recognition of the fact that a large propor- 

 tion of our station work has been, from the necessities of the case, 

 superficial, and that it has not gone sufficiently deep to establish 

 fundamental principles. It w^as urged that there will necessarily re- 

 sult something of a differentiation among workers and among stations, 

 and also a sharper line between teaching and investigation. In illus- 

 tration of this, the work upon animal nutrition, carried on at the 

 Pennsylvania Station with the respiration calorimeter, was cited as an 

 instance of special fitness in the way of a leader and equipment which 

 few stations could expect to attain. The results of such fundamental 

 iuA^estigations are applicable to the country at large, and are of special 

 interest and value to the experiment stations in connection with their 

 feeding work. In recognition of this the section expressed its com- 

 mendation of this work, and its hope that it would be continued and 

 developed to the fullest extent deemed practicable by the board of 

 control. 



One of the difficulties recognized in the undertaking of research 

 work was the lack of men suited to such work, for it was clearly 

 shown that the main reliance must in the end be placed upon the 

 men, and if they have not the proper conception of research and the 

 spirit for it the w'ork will not be of high order. Another difficulty 

 frequently mentioned was the demand for practical results and the 

 lack of interest by the general public in researches into fundamental 

 principles. These things, however, will gradually right themselves 

 as the work progresses, for it will attract men of proper training to 

 it, and its practical value will become more broadly apparent. 



The section passed a resolution recording its approval of the meth- 

 ods adopted by the Office of Experiment Stations for the administra- 

 tion of the Adams Act. 



Three papers were presented before this section — one on Problems 

 of Animal Nutrition, by Dr. H. P. Armsby ; another on Methods of 

 Experimentation in Feeding for Meat Production, by H. W. Mum- 

 ford; and the third on Methods of Experimentation in Feeding for 

 Milk Production, by J. L. Hills. 



Dr. Armsby ^s paper was an able and scholarl}^ review of the feed- 

 ing work thus far carried on by the stations, its limitations, and the 

 kind of investigation needed at the present stage of knowledge. 

 Without underestimating the great value of much of the work done 

 ])y the stations, the speaker believed it had '* served only to a very 

 subordinate degree to reveal principles. The latter we have seemed 

 largely content to borrow from foreign investigators.'' He called 

 attention to the limitations of digestion experiments and of the ordi- 

 nary feeding experiments, pointing out the difference in efficiency of 

 digestible matter of different feeding stuffs, as shown by the work of 



