EDITORIAL. 305 



• The brunt of this outside Avork has hitherto fallen very largely 

 upon the experiment stations. The organization of extension depart- 

 ments will greatly relieve them of this burden and allow them to 

 confine themselves more strictly to their legitimate fields. The sta- 

 tion should disseminate, not general information, but the results of 

 its experiments and investigations; and its efforts in that direction 

 will necessarily be confined for the most part to the usual channels of 

 its bulletins and reports. The popular instruction of the farmer, on 

 the other hand, does not stop with what is strictly new, but begins 

 with what is new to him, and attempts to prepare him to profit by the 

 work of the station. 



The station men have of late been relieved to considerable extent 

 of the institute work. This must necessarih' be the case, and they can 

 be expected to do less and less of this outside work. While a limited 

 amount is often helpful in keeping them in close touch with the 

 farmers' problems, this amount can easily pass beyond the boundaries 

 of desirability. The correspondence of the station men is still, in many 

 instances, very heavy and burdensome. It consists in large measure 

 of answers to practical questions from farmers on a great variety of 

 topics, and has often been made quite a feature. In some instances 

 as many as three thousand letters a year have been answered by a 

 single department of the station. These, if giA^en conscientious atten- 

 tion, make large inroads upon the men's time and only incidentally 

 and occasionally are of assistance to them in their work. Thousands 

 of letters in rej)ly to popular inquiries have been written out labori- 

 ously b}^ the investigators themselves, because of the lack of steno- 

 graphic assistance. 



This has all been a part of a general propaganda for a more intelli- 

 gent and progressive agriculture, and aside from its direct assistance 

 has been of immense value in wmning the confidence and support of 

 the farmers and developing public sentiment. But this movement is 

 now sp thoroughly set in motion, the consulting expert and the bureau 

 of information may well be turned over to a special agency. The aim 

 should be to differentiate between these different classes of effort as 

 rapidly as possible, and to conserve the time of the station men for 

 the experimental work which is now demanding their full attention. 

 This furnishes the foundation and is the mainsta}' of both the college 

 instruction and the extension work. 



