1917] EDITORIAL. 607 



is described, as well as the great desirability of increasing the farm 

 production per hectare. The commission asserts that the entire 

 system for agricultural encouragement, instruction, and research in 

 France must be reconstructed " from the base to the summit," declar- 

 ing that " it has been definitely shown that the countries which have 

 made the greatest progress and which obtain from their soil the 

 highest returns, are those which have increased the institutions of 

 research and instruction of the highest rank, and have prepared their 

 rural population to appreciate them, to accept them, and to have full 

 ■confidence in science. The report asserts further that " all the great 

 progress realized in the domain of agriculture has had its point of 

 departure in the works and discoveries of science." 



The commission describes in considerable detail the experiment sta- 

 tion system of the United States, which it commends highly. This 

 system is contrasted with the stations and laboratories in France, for 

 which the government in 1913 voted 339,700 francs (about $68,000), 

 with very small additional revenues from local and similar sources. 

 This sum is shown to be quite inadequate, and to result in limiting 

 the field work and expensive investigations and in restricting con- 

 siderably the routine functions. 



At present the French station is usually devoted to a single branch 

 of industry. The commission argues for fewer stations located in 

 typical agricultural areas and well organized to cover the various 

 phases of the industries, with specialists in each. It is also suggested 

 that the stations should seek the collaboration of farmers, much as 

 have the Danes in their experimental work. 



What the commission regards as very serious obstacles are the com- 

 parative isolation of the stations from one another and their lack of 

 central supervision. It advocates the appointment of a permanent 

 superior council to guide and direct the work of the stations, assure 

 the proper use of the funds at their disposal, provide for meetings 

 of their personnel from time to time, publish results of their work 

 and abstracts of material of interest appearing elsewhere, and other- 

 wise correlate and unite the scattered institutions into a national 

 system. The establishment of a well equipped central station charged 

 with work of a strictly scientific nature of interest to the whole coun- 

 try, or of such scope and importance that it could not be carried on 

 to the best advantage at the regional stations, is also favored. 



The entrance of the United States into the war is of course too re- 

 cent for extensive developments, but attention may be drawn to the 

 appointment of an agriculture committee of the National Eesearch 

 Council and the active participation of agricultural leaders in the 

 many conferences and compaigns which are the order of the day. 

 89684°— No. 7—17 2 



