EDITORIAL. 357 



proceeds of fees for control work. This routine work, however, ofteu 

 absorbs so much of the energy of station workers that they are not 

 able to do much else. Very many European investigators would liail 

 with delight relief from this work, provided there came with it such 

 abundant funds as our stations have for original research. The system 

 of voluntary control of fertilizers and seeds so long practiced in Europe 

 is now being subjected to considerable criticism and in some (piarters 

 at least there is a disposition to seek the enactment of laws patterned 

 after our fertilizer statutes. 



The apparatus and mechanical appliances of the P^uropean stations 

 oftentimes seem to be clumsy and unnecessarily comxjlicated. It is 

 believed that our workers have the advantage in inventiveness and in 

 the opportunity to secure the aid of quick-witted mechanicians. If we 

 would only give more attention to improvement of appliances for exper- 

 imenting, we ought before long to outstrip our European colleagues in 

 this line of endeavor. 



European station officers express much surprise at the number and 

 mass of our station publications. While some of them are inclined to 

 take a severely critical attitude regarding these documents, those men 

 who have the broadest outlook and who understand most perfectly the 

 conditions of our work realize tliat our stations are accomplishing a 

 great educational work for our farmers. They wish that we would be 

 a little more orderly in our method of publication and distinguish more 

 clearly between i^opular and scientific publications, but they appreciate 

 the fact that we are briuging agricultural science home to the farmer as 

 is done nowhere else in the world. They greatly deplore the irregular- 

 ity of the publication of results of European investigations and the 

 scattering of these reports in numerous and often obscure publications. 

 Many European station workers evidently take a great interest iu what 

 is being done in the American stations. They follow up the reports of 

 our work, especially as reported in the Experiment Station Kecord, 

 speak discriminatingly of our methods and results, aiul have a high 

 regard for the good work which has been accomplished here. 



The lack of a definite system of publication of investigations, espe- 

 cially iu popular form, is in a measure compensated by the close relations 

 which many of the European stations hold to farmers' organizations. 

 Agricultural societies, as well as individual farmers, seek the aid of the 

 stations with reference to the purchase of pure seeds, fertilizers, and 

 feeding stuffs and take their advice regarding the introductions of new 

 crops and improved methods of agriculture. 



Oral explanations of the station work are made at numerous f\irmers' 

 meetings either by station experts or by orticers ajjpointed by the Gov- 

 ernment to go from place to place for this purpose. Fields of demon- 

 stration on which the results of station investigations are i)ractically 

 shown and made to conform to local conditions are increasing iu 



