314 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



amount is not advantageous, but is often prohibitory of any work 

 which can be regarded as investigation. The kind of teaching required 

 is also an important consideration. The distinction was emphatically 

 made between teaching elementary branches, or the fundamentals, and 

 advanced work. The teaching done at the agricultural colleges in this 

 country is of necessity very largely the teaching of fundamentals, and 

 this was held to be a disadvantage rather than an advantage to the 

 investigator. One director of long experience declared the claim that 

 the teaching of fundamentals and the drilling of classes for fifty per 

 cent of his time is an advantage to the investigator to be "nothing 

 but a pleasant fallacy." 



Ten to twenty lectures a year b} 7 the heads of departments was 

 mentioned by several speakers as a fair amount which might be con- 

 ceded to be an advantage to the worker, as a means of gathering himself 

 together and clarifying his views; and others mentioned a course of 

 advanced instruction occupying six hours a week and so arranged as 

 to leave three days a week entirely free from teaching. All agreed 

 that any considerable amount of teaching, even of advanced grade, 

 was disadvantageous to the station worker, as it distracted his thoughts 

 from his investigation and consumed or broke up his time. 



Few men have the faculty which enables them to pass readily from 

 their teaching work to their investigation, or to utilize to advantage 

 for that purpose fragments of time represented by a few hours scat- 

 tered through the day. There is great loss of energy and of efficiency 

 under such conditions, and the spare time is likely to be largely frit- 

 tered away. The situation might often be relieved by greater con- 

 sideration for the station men in arranging the schedule of instruction. 

 The time of a half-station man ma,j be so completely broken up by two 

 or three periods of class-room work a day that only work of the sim- 

 plest kind, requiring the minimum of attention, is possible. Some 

 institutions arrange to have the teaching of such men come during a 

 certain part of the day, or on alternate days, or during half the year, 

 so as to leave more time free from interruption. If a part of the year 

 can be left free from college duties, one serious objection to the dual 

 service is met. 



Again, the uncertainty of the amount of college work liable to be 

 required of him introduces an element of doubt which often discour- 

 ages the station worker from planning any investigation requiring 

 his continued attention. Many exigencies arise in college work, such 

 as an extra large class, the demand for a course not usually given, 

 pressure of short courses, absence of the regular college instructor, 

 and the like, in which case the station man is pressed into extra serv- 

 ice; and these contingencies often tend to make the station man feel 

 that his time is not his own until the college term has closed. 



