4 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



men of the colleges and stations is so largely judged by popular 

 efforts. ... If the members of this station staff \Yere to meet all 

 the calls they have for speaking and for visitation to different locali- 

 ties in the State, dust would settle on the crucible and the micro- 

 scope.'" He took occasion to emphasize the importance of close 

 adherence to thorough and scientific investigations as indispensable 

 to the most satisfactory and permanent results. 



A reason for the need of this careful concentration of activity in 

 research was indicated by Governor Hughes in ,a speech warmly 

 commendatory of the twenty-five years of patient, quiet, and effect- 

 ive effort of the station. In his opinion the scientific method, of 

 which the station was to be regarded as an exponent, is to be defined 

 as a patient, careful, persistent pursuit of truth — a fundamental 

 principle which he declared of general application in all human 

 affairs. " What Ave want," he went on to say, " is reason in agricul- 

 ture. It is what we want in connection with every other field of 

 noble effort. We want training, we want intelligence, we want 

 scientific method, we Avant direction, Ave want the waj^ shown, and 

 then the man, in a way, can Avalk in it." 



In an address on Lessons of the Day, Dean Bailey declared the 

 fundamental i^urpose of the stations to be to increase the fertility 

 and productiveness of the land. In his opinion a practical problem 

 confronting them Avas the reclamation of the " abandoned farm," 

 the economic aspects of Avhich he discussed at length. A broad con- 

 ception of the function of the stations Avas also shoAvn in the address 

 of President Thompson on National and State Aid to luA^estigation, 

 Avho belieA'ed the principles underlying Federal legislation in their 

 behalf to be based on the " general-Avelfare " clause of the Con- 

 stitution. 



Such evidence of progress in dcA'clopment, in our thinking and 

 our ideals, and in public appreciation are gratifying to the stations 

 as a Avhole and reflect credit on the efficiency and fruit fulness of our 

 national system. Not until 1918 Avill its. youngest member reach its 

 tAventy-fifth anniversary. Who Avould attempt to predict the deA^el- 

 opment in the meantime? 



Dr. George Chapman Caldwell, emeritus professor of chemistry in 

 Cornell University and for many years prominently identified Avith 

 the progress of agricultural chemistry in this country, died in a sani- 

 tarium September 5, at the age of 73 years. Doctor CaldAvell Avas one 

 of the early Avorkers in agricultural experimentation in this country, 

 a Avriter and lecturer upon various phases of agricultural science, and 

 a specialist in the deA^elopment and perfection of methods for agricul- 

 tural analysis. His book entitled "Agricultural Chemical Analysis," 



