EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. Vlll. No. 3. 



The energy with wliich the agricultural experiment stations in the 

 United States have undertaken to bring the results of their investiga- 

 tions home to the farmer has excited the admiration of foreign leaders 

 in agricultural progress. The system which we have adopted for fre- 

 quent publication and wide distribution of station bulletins is without 

 a parallel elsewhere. It undoubtedly brings the stations close to the 

 farmers and secures the support of the people. The labor involved 

 in the preparation of station publications is so great and the funds 

 required for the printing and distribution of these publications con- 

 stitute so large a share of the total resources of our stations that 

 questions relating to the proper form and style of station publications 

 are worthy of the careful attention of station workers and managers. 

 Already these matters have been much discussed at conventions of 

 station officers and on other occasions. Nevertheless a general survey 

 of our station literature indicates that there is still room for improve- 

 ment in the manner of presenting station investigations to the public. 



It is taken for granted that in a general way station publications 

 may be divided into two classes — technical and popular. In the tech- 

 nical publications accuracy and clearness are the chief elements of 

 style needed to show whether a good piece of work has actually been 

 accomplished. In the popular publications there must be, in addition, 

 a careful consideration of the best way to interest the reader — to 

 instruct him without wearying him, and to leave him with definite 

 ideas of the practical usefulness of the work described. It is granted 

 that the translation of science into the language of the people is a 

 difficult task. But for the very reason that this is so it does not 

 become the writer of station bulletins to give evidence of haste or 

 carelessness in his literary efforts. lie can not be allowed t(> plead 

 l)ressure of time and other work as an ex(!use for the slovenly per- 

 formance of one of his most imi)ortant duties. It is of comjiaratively 

 little use to make or record experiments if they are so reported as to 

 confuse or mislead the inquirer after scientific or practical truth. 



And what stumbling-blocks we put in the way of our farmer readers 

 by using unfamiliar technical terms when the i^eople's English would 

 have served our purpose far better. We were recently much grieved 

 to lind a bulletin from one of our stations, which has a good record for 



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