EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 36. January, 1917. No. 1. 



The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science is one of the great scientific events of the year. It 

 is a vast clearinghouse for ideas and results in science, and for the 

 testing and molding of views. It presents the largest forum in this 

 country for healthy, tempered but searching criticism in science, with- 

 out which science becomes self-complacent, lax, and unexacting in 

 its requirements. 



Beyond this, such a meeting of men associated with the various 

 branches of science has a remarkably broadening influence. One 

 gets neAv insight, suggestion, and inspiration from such a contact of 

 minds, such a presentation of evidence, such a weighing and testing 

 of results and of views. The individual finds anew that his branch 

 of science or his specialty has relations beyond the narrow limits in 

 which he has been considering it, and that there is not only an in- 

 terest in following this broader relation, but a danger unless he does 

 that he may specialize too closely in his thinking and view his sub- 

 ject out of focus. 



Hence it seems worth while for the man of science to foregather 

 from time to time with his colleagues in the annual convocation, 

 worth the time and worth the money outlay. This is not so much to 

 listen to papers which might be read or to present a report which 

 might be published, but to keep his mind from narrowing, to main- 

 tain a contact with science which is well nigh impossible otherwise, 

 and an association which contributes so much to the zeal and the satis- 

 faction of a scientific career. It brings him definitely into member- 

 ship in that great fraternity of workers in the broad field of science — 

 some for its own sake, some for its relations to human welfare, all 

 having the common purpose to advance knowledge and understand- 

 ing. It was the belief in such advantages that led thousands of men 

 and women to journey long distances, many from the South and the 

 West, to attend the New York meeting. 



The relation to agriculture of considerable parts of the programs 

 of various sections and affiliated societies seems increasingly greater 

 with each succeeding meeting. Perhaps it is because our interest 

 is broadening. Perhaps it is because the investigation in agriculture 



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