19181 EDITOBIAL. 3 



majority of station workers may render greatest service by remaining 

 in the positions they now occupy, if they are alert and determined to 

 make their efforts count. They are needed there more than elsewhere, 

 and by remaining they may take quite as definite and essential a part 

 in aiding the final result as if they transferred to another branch. 

 The qualities of the leader or the product of initiative may find ex- 

 pression quite as much there as in a larger aggregation, and the result 

 is likely to stand out quite as prominently. 



The workers need to feel this, and to be encouraged to do the 

 things which will promote that feeling by satisfying their desire for 

 active service. They need to look upon themselves, as the extension 

 forces do in many States, as a vital part of a great agricultural army, 

 whose efforts are vital in the same way as the investigators in the 

 gas service or the food supply of cantonments, or any other line of 

 expert war work. Then they may feel that they are helping to win 

 the war even though they are not working in the camps or a Gov- 

 ernment office. They will see that their greatest usefulness as ex- 

 perts usually lies back in their institutions, in close contact with 

 their constituency. 



It is inevitable that the war should result in much hardship to the 

 experiment stations through loss of men, and make more difficult 

 their task of maintaining their usual lines of activity. Already some 

 stations have been severely crippled by these losses, and the difficulty 

 of making the places good has been at least a temporary setback to 

 their work. 



One saving circumstance, however, is the fact that the losses have 

 been quite largely among the younger men. For the most part the 

 heads of departments and more important staff members have re- 

 mained, although there are some instances where these have been 

 attracted to expert service with the Government or in commercial 

 establishments. To some extent associates and assistants capable of 

 doing independent work have left for other fields, and even skilled 

 laborers, so essential to certain kinds of greenhouse, plat and feeding 

 experiments, have been taken or attracted by larger wages. In some 

 of the southern stations, for example, it was necessary the past season 

 to employ negro women for such work, as the only labor available. 



But the retention of so large a proportion of the leaders has pre- 

 served the station organization and left a basis on which to continue 

 its established or modified lines of activity. These remain to block 

 out the plans and supply .the expert judgment so essential in this 

 class of activity. The burden upon them has been increased, for 

 with less trained and experienced assistants they must look more 

 carefully to direction and supervision. Their resourcefulness and 

 ability to adapt means to ends must be relied upon. This condition 



