EDITORIAL. 5 



I'eligious, and educational forces available, and their proper coordi- 

 nation and federation. 



These new activities will undoubtedly modify present methods in 

 many respects, and increase the duties and responsibilities of the 

 colleges and stations and of the Department. The bitter are to fur- 

 nish the great body of highly trained men and the sound teaching 

 and research upon Avhich extension work must depend to be effec- 

 tive. To do this successfully they must differentiate their activities, 

 direct attention to advanced teaching for the special preparation of 

 workers, and carefully husband the research facilities. 



One of the earliest effects upon the colleges seems likely to be in 

 a demand for the better training of extension workers. With the 

 rapid organization of so large a field force and the existing shortage 

 of material, defective preparation will be brought to light in many 

 instances, while the most successful of these workers will the soon- 

 est appreciate their limitations. The colleges, already overburdened 

 though they are, must prepare to meet this demand. Thorough and 

 adequate courses of study must be provided for those who are to 

 become extension workers as well as teachers, investigators, and 

 the like, even though these necessitate the abandonment of some of 

 the work already undertaken in the subcollegiate grades of agricul- 

 tural teaching. Many things which are now being attempted must 

 be relegated to the secondary schools and others to the extension 

 divisions. One broad effect of the new developments, as brought 

 out in the address of the president of the association, should there- 

 fore be a clearer differentiation of the field of collegiate instruction. 



The new extension activities will also require sharper differentia- 

 tion from those of the experiment stations, and vice versa. As the 

 committee on experiment station organization and policy set forth, 

 " the extension work has developed very largely with and out of the 

 work of experiment stations ; and in a considerable number of cases 

 has formed a feature of the stations' own activities. This fact has 

 tended to broaden the conception of the station's field and popular 

 expectation in regard to it. Instead of being strictly an institution 

 for acquiring information through investigation and experiment, it 

 has served to some extent for the popular dissemination of informa- 

 tion regarding improved farm practice. The effect of this has been 

 to confuse the public mind, and often many workers within the sta- 

 tions, as to the real function of the experiment station." 



The committee held that broadly speaking, the activities of the 

 experiment station should be directed to the gaining of knowledge of 

 definite character, and the determination of facts and methods for 

 agriculture. Its methods should be those of investigation and experi- 

 ment, scientifically sound and capable of giving results which may 



