4 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. [Vol.38 



will entail more planning and supervision, from the director's office 

 down through the various departments. 



This depletion of station forces will of itself entail some neces- 

 sary changes in the station projects. Many a man has gone whose 

 place can not be filled and who has left a line of study which must 

 be temporarily laid aside. This condition will increase the need of 

 concentrating on essential lines and utilizing the forces to best ad- 

 vantage. In some respects it may require doing a larger propor- 

 tion of work which makes less demand for specialization; and this 

 would not be without some advantage, for many of the current needs 

 are of that class. 



One means of relief which is open and which might be followed 

 more largely than it has been is the employment of women. There 

 are many college trained women who have specialized in some branch 

 of science and taken graduate work to further fit them for high 

 grade service. They have perhaps rarely had contact with agricul- 

 tural matters or problems, but they can be trained to the agricultural 

 viewpoint. As a class they are as well adapted as men to many of 

 the operations required in experimental work, in the laboratory and 

 outside. A considerable number who have been tried in the past 

 have proved highly efficient and in all respects desirable. In some 

 of the stations they have risen to the position of head of department ; 

 in others, they have become experts in chemical analysis, in bacte- 

 riological technic, in entomology, in the study of plant diseases, in 

 breeding investigations, in the handling of poultry, and in many 

 other similar lines. There is nothing in the nature or requirements 

 of such service which unfits them or makes them less promising than 

 men, and there is reason to believe that they might profitably be 

 employed to larger extent. 



While the primary duty of the experiment stations at this time 

 is to help win the war, the question has been as to how this can be 

 done to best advantage, having in mind both the present and the 

 future. Although individually or as a class they have not remained 

 indifferent and have been quick to take on added responsibilities, 

 there has been some evidence of doubt as to how far the situation 

 warrants or makes desirable a departure from the established pro- 

 gram and the usual lines of activity. This is an honest and a patri- 

 otic question, for the war is temporary while agriculture is perma- 

 nent, and there is to be a great period of adjustment and reconstruc- 

 tion after the war. The world conflict will not alter the content of 

 science but will serve to increase dependence upon it. 



The best the stations can do in the main is, while relating their 

 work and the results secured in the past to the special needs of the 

 present, to preserve their organization and aims, to maintain their 



