708 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 40, 1919] 



It should be possible to determine after a reasonable time whether 

 a project is making definite advancement, such as might be antici- 

 pated, or if it is encountering difficulties to ascertain whether these 

 lie in a lack of close application or a diversity of duties or are in- 

 herent in the problem itself. The leader is the soul of research and 

 he deserves the sympathetic counsel of the station administration. 



This leads to the question of the personnel for research. The sta 

 tions have suffered many changes and interruptions in the past two 

 years. They have lost many men temporarily, and others have been 

 tempted into positions offering larger remuneration. The stations 

 have had to meet competition from within and without the colleges. 

 There has been much difficulty in filling the vacant places and this 

 difficulty seems to be on the increase. Recently less mature or ade- 

 quately prepared men have been advanced or brought in from the 

 outside and placed in charge of divisions or lines of station work. 

 There is danger that the standards may be lowered, and at a time 

 when they need to be fully maintained because of the increasingly 

 complex and difficult nature of the problems the stations now have 

 before them. 



The vision which enables the setting of practicable tasks and the 

 formulation of theory is a large factor in broadening the field of in- 

 vestigation and making progress possible. It is a groat asset of the 

 investigator, and it is one of the advantages of the study of science 

 and its accomplishments in the making of an investigator. 



It is important to avoid losing sight of the fact that productive in- 

 vestigation calls for a type of training which instills the idea of the 

 essentials of research and its methods, as well as provides a store of 

 knowledge as a foundation for it. The former is not less important 

 than the latter to give originality, initiative, judgment, ami authority. 

 Unless these can be insured agricultural investigation can not measure 

 up to expectations, and science will not fulfill its role of prophecy. 



