604 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



mended itself to the scientific world and has found a place. It is 

 matter for congratulation that the Department and the stations are 

 now to join in its maintenance, and it is believed that the oppor- 

 tunity which it offers will be recognized and welcomed by many 

 experiment station workers. 



The establishment of a section for agriculture in the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science places this subject on a 

 footing with the other great branches of science, pure and applied, 

 in the foremost scientific asssociation of the country. At the same 

 time it serves to round out the purview of the association, making it 

 more fully representative of all science. It thus recognizes the sub- 

 ject of agriculture in a manner which will be gratifying to those 

 associated with its study, and it expresses its broad relations to 

 science as hardl}^ any other action could. 



In this step the American Association followed the lead of its 

 sister organization, the British Association, which some ten years 

 ago provided a subsection for agriculture ; and it also carries out the 

 plan of the corresponding association for natural science and medi- 

 cine in Germany, which for some years has provided for agriculture 

 in its program. 



It is noteworthy that the movement for a section representing 

 agriculture did not emanate from those directly associated with the 

 subject, but came primarily from without the agricultural colleges 

 and the various agricultural societies. It w^as felt by the council to 

 be a logical expansion of the association, to round out its scope, and 

 to give recognition in its organization to the place agriculture has 

 assumed in science and as an industry developing through science. 

 The broadening interest in it among men of science is one of the 

 notable changes which have come about in its recent development. 

 For many years the various sections of the American Association 

 have given much attention to special aspects of agricultural investi- 

 gation and economics, and the Society for the Promotion of Agri- 

 cultural Science has been listed among its affiliated societies. But 

 heretofore the subject has had no definite place in the organization of 

 the association or on the program of its meetings. It had come to be 

 " conspicuous by its absence." 



The number of special agricultural societies is now sufficient to 

 provide for the communication of technical papers dealing with the 

 progress of investigation in almost any branch of agriculture, and 

 the largest of these, the Association of American Agricultural Col- 

 leges and Experiment Stations, deals with the questions of policy 

 and administration respecting the institutions represented in it. 

 But the new section will afford an opportunit}^ not otlierwise pro- 

 vided for the discussion of agricultural topics of a more general 



