EDITORIAL. 5 



State to train boys to be farmers, it is "a much higher and truer func- 

 tion to develop the science of agriculture, to increase the intellectual 

 activity of every farmer, to improve the agricultural art on every 

 farm, and by such improved art to furnish better and safer food to 

 every citizen." 



Thus, without disparaging or underrating the value of educating the 

 individual, systematic investigation, which extends the sum of human 

 knowledge along useful lines and disseminates the results so as to make 

 them available to all who will use them, is given a fundamental signifi- 

 cance and a place of paramount importance in the general scheme of 

 education. 



The thesis is not a new one in science, but it is given a new force by 

 its application to research in agriculture. Few lines could be found 

 which furnish more tangible or convincing evidence of the value of 

 investigation; and the plan of organization under which it has been 

 carried on, coupled with the prompt dissemination of information 

 through bulletins, the farmers' institutes, and other agencies, has been 

 singularly suited to popularize it and give it wide influence. 



Investigation has preceded and made possible the new agricultural 

 education, as well as created the demand for it; and while the needs of 

 the people engaged in the art were being studied systematically, and 

 the masses enlightened by bringing the results to their doors, a science 

 of agriculture was being gradually built up by the classification of exist- 

 ing knowledge and the contribution of much that is new. The move- 

 ment has reached a position where it is attracting the attention of men 

 of science in other lines, and incidentally it has done much to popu- 

 larize scientific research as a whole and to give confidence in its utility. 

 It is interesting that Professor Chamberlin, with his wide familiarity 

 with research in various branches of science, should have drawn the 

 principal illustration in his argument for research from agriculture; 

 and seldom, it may be noted, has the case for agricultural research 

 been presented more forcefully. 



The bulletin on the Agricultural Experiment Stations in Foreign 

 Countries, issued b} T this Office over two years ago, has been thor- 

 oughly revised, and the revision is now in press. The original edition 

 was regarded quite largely as preliminary and intended to serve as a 

 basis for a more complete collection of data. Clippings from it 

 were sent to the directors of the stations and agricultural officials 

 abroad for revision, and in this way most of the data have been veri- 

 fied and supplemented. 



As compared with the original bulletin, which listed about 730 experi- 

 ment stations and similar institutions, this bulletin contains accounts of 

 798 such institutions arranged in alphabetical order by countries and 

 5409— No. 1—04 2 



