2 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 36 



is leading more and more deeply into the realm of the sciences. And 

 undoubtedly it is because interest in these problems is becoming more 

 widespread, for the problems of agriculture are now attracting the 

 attention of very many men and women identified with nonagricul- 

 tural institutions. The biological chemists, the various botanical 

 organizations, the entomologists, the zoologists, the geneticists, the 

 ecologists, all had papers of immediate import to agricultural in- 

 vestigation. Indeed, there were so many of these contributions and 

 discussions that the difficulty was to hear more than a small part 

 and to make a selection. 



The Section of Agriculture confined its program to a single ses- 

 sion, in order to avoid conflict with the programs of other agricul- 

 tural organizations meeting during the week. The session was pre- 

 sided over by Dr. W. H. Jordan, of the New York State Experiment 

 Station. Unfortunately the retiring vice president, Dean E. Daven- 

 port of Illinois, was unable to reach the meeting owing to delayed 

 railroad transportation, and his address accordingly had to be 

 omitted. The program consisted of a symposium on The Adjust- 

 ment of Science to Practice in Agriculture, participated in by Dr. 

 H. J. Wheeler of Boston, Dr. J. G. Lipman of New Jersey, Dr. G. F. 

 Warren of Cornell University, and Director B. Yoimgblood of the 

 Texas Station. 



Taken as a whole, this discussion was a frank acknowledgment of 

 the present limitations of our agricultural knowledge, especially the 

 full understanding of it, and some of the difficulties in its applica- 

 tion in successful farming. It was a somewhat critical analysis of 

 experimental methods, and it sounded a caution against premature 

 generalization from laboratory results to the farm. The more we 

 study and learn, the clearer it becomes that science may not always 

 be applied equally and imiformly under existing local, economic, and 

 other conditions, and that safe teaching requires consideration of 

 many things. The keynote of the discussion was the conduct of 

 broader and more searching inquiries and greater caution in their in- 

 terpretation. As Dr. Jordan stated, the stations have been and are 

 still putting too much time on mere variables that have no broad sig- 

 nificance, and too little time on broad fundamentals. He called at- 

 tention to the fallacy and unwisdom of attempting to state results 

 in terms of dollars and cents, since these have no real permanent or 

 scientific significance. 



In considering some factors lying between scientific results and the 

 farm. Dr. Wheeler grouped these factors under the heads of political, 

 economic, and technical. Holding that agriculture needs to be 

 stimulated by political action^ so as to provide not only favorable but 



