EDTTORTAL. 1(103 



witli (ho raising of standards for entrance and for instrnction at the 

 aoricuitural colleges, and Avith^the increased flexibility of these 

 courses. The}^ have thus become more adaptable to the needs of 

 various classes of students. 



The advantages to station work of the broad view afl'orded by train- 

 ing in the older sciences have been shown in a number of instances the 

 past year. Men have come into the station work who brought to it a 

 thorough grounding in science, although they had but little infornui- 

 tion regarding the practice of agriculture or its particular problems. 

 AVhen these problems have been laid before them the}- have proceeded 

 to analyze them and work them out according to the methods of 

 their science, cutting away from stereotyped methods and approach- 

 ing the subject from a new point of view. In this way the accumu- 

 lated records of chicken breeding have been subjected to biometric 

 stucl}^, and the changes in cheese making have been approached from 

 the standpoint of physical chemistry. 



The result has been illuminating. It has emphasized the advantage 

 of the num who has broad and thorough training in science, and has 

 suggested this class of investigators as the channel through which 

 progress in fundamental inquiries may be most rapid. The free- 

 dom for such investigation •which has come in the past two years, 

 and release from other duties of a miscellaneous character, is attract- 

 ing to the experiment stations a considerable number of men trained 

 in the pure sciences, who have heretofore looked askance at them as 

 a field of activity. 



Recent progress in physiological chemistry points to a line of in- 

 quiry Avhich may be helpfid in understanding certain processes in the 

 animal body. It illustrates an attempt to get beyond an empirical 

 fact long know'n and discover the fundamental reason lying back of 

 it. It shows the breadth of view required of the investigator, and the 

 account wdiich he nnist take of the progress of science. 



A thorough understanding of the fundamental laws of nutrition must 

 consider the chemistry of cells and organs as well as the chemistry of the 

 body as a whole. Within the last few years physiologists and physi- 

 ological chemists have carried on researches in body chemistry which 

 have yielded very important results, and may have a bearing on diffi- 

 cult questions relating to animal nutrition. For instance, investiga- 

 tions have been conducted by Mendel and his students at Yale Uni- 

 versity on the growth and development of the animal body, particu- 

 larly with pigs and poultry. These investigations have dealt with 

 the composition and chemical changes which are characteristic of 

 developing organisms, and the equij^ment of such organisms (diges- 

 tive ferments, secretive glands, etc.), for utilizing the nutritive mate- 

 rials presented to them. 



