10 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. [Vol.36 



able information and are ready to make use of the teachings of in- 

 vestigation. The special demand at the present time is in the field 

 of forest products, but to those engaged in investigation the field now 

 appears much larger than it did at the beginning, and they realize 

 that demands will be upon them long before they can be ready to 

 meet them. 



While the Forest Service is the largest center for investigation, 

 experimental work is going on incidentally in many other places, 

 but, as was pointed out, there is no cooperation or correlation, and no 

 means of knowing what others are doing. The advantage of the 

 periodical publication of projects was emphasized, and the correlation 

 of the forest investigations of the country was advocated. Such a 

 correlation, it was explained, would be wholly voluntary and brought 

 about by suggestion ; but some provision for it was deemed especially 

 desirable in these early stages of investigation, before the plans be- 

 came so crystallized and fixed that changes can not well be made. 



The proposal for coordination brought forward some doubt as to 

 its desirability or feasibility, and an expression of the difficulty of 

 cooperation or coordination in research similar to that advanced 

 when cooperation in agricultural investigation has been under con- 

 sideration. It is noteworthy in these discussions, however, that the 

 term "research" is used in a generic sense to include the various 

 grades of experimental inquiry^ while those who have advocated a 

 larger measure of coordination and cooperation have not applied the 

 argument to research in its more strict sense. 



There seems to be quite widespread objection to any proposal 

 which aims to bring experimenters together or harmonize the plans 

 for their experiments. Is it because our investigation in agriculture 

 and forestry is so much younger than that in the. sciences, and lacks 

 backgi'ound to give confidence in the attempt of men to cooperate 

 with one another? Or is it purely academic, in the belief that even 

 the simpler forms of experimentation should not be related for fear 

 they will be stereotyped or possibly centralized, but should be left 

 wholly to the independent worker ? Suggestion has been a powerful 

 influence with the rank and file of experimenters in the past. Very 

 much of our experimental work in agriculture has followed the lead 

 of the few, but not in a manner to contribute in the largest measure 

 to confirmation or to progress. 



The same feeling does not seem to prevail in the older sciences; 

 the astronomers have long worked under a common agreement which 

 rests upon a division of the field, the chemists have cooperated in the 

 study and development of methods, the botanists have encouraged 

 the development of special lines by groups of workers, and the geog- 

 raphers have had an effective international agreement relative to map 



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