304 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



there good pieces of AA'ork regardless of divided opinions or even in 

 opposition to expert advice." 



Some of these views will sound very familiar, for they coincide so 

 fully Avith experience in agricultural research. A well-known result 

 with the Institution has been the establishment of departments of 

 its own in order to secure the conditions found necessary to research, 

 and a great restriction of the assignment of grants for work outside. 

 In other words, even this institution, with freedom of purpose and 

 action, and with large means at its disposal, has early found it de- 

 sirable to concentrate its efforts and resources upon a few chosen 

 lines, and to anticipate their growing needs. 



It is recognized as impracticable for station men to restrict their 

 efforts absolutely to the field and laboratory work connected with 

 their investigations and experiments, or to have the full command 

 of their time enjoyed by those in a private institution. Many will 

 believe such a restriction is not wholly desirable, because of the 

 nature and relationships of the work. But it seems clear as time 

 goes on that a greater measure of relief from the effects of a too 

 diverse program should be sought. This is especially the case now 

 that the station's field is more sharply defined. 



Such relief can often be effected by a more favorable division or 

 adjustment of the time of station workers, so as to give longer 

 periods free from interruption; and by favorable environment — by 

 arrangements which will protect the men by enabling a greater de- 

 gree of seclusion at times, and often by a proximity of the investi- 

 gator to the matters he is studying. And beyond this, through 

 proper exercise of the administrative function men may be dissuaded 

 or deterred from laying out too diffuse or ambitious programs. A 

 part of the present difficulty often lies in the men themselves, a result 

 of the experience they have passed through or of failure to acquire 

 habits of concentration. 



The conservation of the time of station men is to a considerable 

 extent a matter of organization and of making definite provision for 

 the various divisions of work. More might often be done to relieve 

 station men of executive functions, from exacting requirements con- 

 nected with the academic life of the college, and from duties which 

 should be cared for by the extension force. If men who are pri- 

 marily investigators are on the program for a limited amoimt of in- 

 struction, this can be so arranged as to come at a convenient part of 

 the year or of the day, to avoid interruption ; and if it then proves 

 too much of a burden or distraction, the wisest course may be to make 

 other provision for it, recognizing that in the case of a competent 

 investigator the instruction he gives is of secondary importance and 

 should not be permitted to interfere with his primary function. 



