504 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



national character of our system of agricultural research was obscured 

 and the scientific value of much of the work of our stations was lost 

 sight of because of the miscellaneous character of the station publi- 

 cations, and the multiplicity of the sources from which they ema- 

 nated. There is little doubt that our stations would have a much 

 better standing in the scientific world if their more scientific publi- 

 cations were differentiated from their popular ones and issued 

 through a single regular channel. 



The report suggests the possibility of establishing an editorial 

 board through the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations to represent the interests of the stations 

 in this matter, and that this board might act in cooperation with 

 this Office in the preparation for the press of reports submitted by 

 the individual stations. There is ample time for the elaboration of 

 this or some other satisfactoiy plan for securing the suitable publi- 

 cation of the scientific work of the stations, but it is felt that this 

 problem should be carefully considered with a view to reaching a 

 satisfactory solution in the near future. 



The necessity for the exercise of patience in research, both by those 

 who are prosecuting it and especially by the prospective beneficiaries, 

 is emphasized in an address by Dr. D. P. Penhallow, published in 

 a recent issue of Science. The address was delivered on the occasion 

 of the opening of Clark Hall, the new botanical building at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



Doctor Penhallow, for many years professor of botany in McGill 

 University, is not actively engaged in agricultural research but he 

 is quits familiar with the history of its development, and he makes 

 an appeal which is especially opportune at this time. He points 

 out that " nature's processes, although exceedingly certain of fulfill- 

 ment, are nevertheless exceedingly slow. If it has taken five hun- 

 dred million years to shape this earth and render it a fit habitation 

 for man, man himself must not be impatient if he is required to 

 spend a few years of arduous toil that he may unlock some of the 

 doors which so carefully guard nature's secrets. Sixty-three years 

 sped on their way from the time when Boussingault first endeavored 

 to ascertain the source of nitrogen in plants, until a satisfactory 

 explanation was reached through our knowledge of the action of root 

 tubercles; and for more than sixty years Lawes and Gilbert sought 

 the solution of plant nutrition without gaining the end in view, 



" The laws of nature are not kept on draught, as it were, to be 

 ' drawn in large or small quantity, according to the demand. To pre- 

 sent a problem to an investigator and expect an immediate solution, 

 or an immediate practical application, is to be prodigal of a costly 

 equipment, to sacrifice unnecessarily the best and most carefullj'^ 



