706 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 40 



it misses the essential feature of research and proceeds on a mistaken 

 estimate of the necessarily inherent value of data covering long 

 periods. Experimental data are of value to and a part of investiga- 

 tion as they are applied to it. Already we have a broad background 

 for investigation in most common subjects in agriculture. It is not 

 necessary to spend time exclusively or. mainly in taking data which 

 may serve at some future time as the basis for research. The problem 

 and the specific question are already at hand if we can discern them. 



To cite a familiar example, it has long been known that land can 

 be cropped continuously for a long time, often with surprising 

 returns, and that fertility or productive capacity may be maintained 

 and even improved by combinations of cropping systems, fertilizers, 

 and soil treatment. Whether or not this is fundamentally true is no 

 longer a question for lengthy experiment : the general truth is now 

 matter for demonstration. The economic phase may need some devel- 

 opment and local adaptation, but the underlying question for re- 

 search lies beyond this point. It concerns the reasons, the change- in 

 conditions and relationships which are brought about, the reciprocal 

 relations of various classes of factors which are in operation, the 

 means of maintaining the proper balance in these factors, and matters 

 of this sort. These are not solved by growing and harvesting crops in 

 rotation through a long period, even if the greatest possible care is 

 observed, or by the chemical analysis of the crops and of the soils 

 at intervals of several year-, or even by sampling the plats occa- 

 sionally for the usual bacteriological examination. Rotation and fer- 

 tilizer experiments of themselves seem at present to be contributing 

 relatively little that is new regarding the theory of plant feeding, soil 

 fertility, and soil management, It is where such series of experiments 

 are being utilized to study certain definite questions of limited range 

 that they are productive of new light. 



It is the purpose and use which give life to the taking of data and 

 make their acquisition profitable. Correlation studies, for example, 

 proceed through long periods and result in volumes of data, but un- 

 less they are interpreted in relation to some problem they do not 

 directly advance knowledge, and a point is soon reached where their 

 accumulation lacks the elements of research. 



There is frequent reluctance to discontinue or abandon a line of 

 study once taken up, even though it has not progre—ed .satisfactorily. 

 This reluctance is not necessarily confined to the leader but is shared 

 by the station administration. Outlines of new projects are scruti- 

 nized critically, and often passed upon by a project committee, but 

 after the projects are added to the program there seems a considerable 

 disposition to allow them to take their course and not to question 

 too closely their progress or the advisability of their continuance. 



