1917] EDITOBIAL. 107 



to take up new lines of work instead of using the time to digest 

 and publish what thej have already acquired. This is the explana- 

 tion why practical results of importance sometimes remain for a 

 long time unprinted. Unfortunately a considerable amount of our 

 station work is behind in publication, much of it still in the form 

 of the original notes. Hence, when a demand like the present comes, 

 with a need for all available data and results having a practical 

 value, the work of compilation must be speeded up and conclusions 

 made ready for application. To guard against unnecessary delay in 

 publication and see that the product of station work is promptly 

 placed before the public is a matter to which the director may well 

 give systematic attention. 



Our agriculture is more and more drifting into a condition where 

 the highest efficiency will be required. This is evident from the in- 

 crease in population, the higher price of land, the deficiency of soils, 

 the need for vigilance in controlling or evading diseases and insect 

 pests, the increasing problems of economical meat production, and so 

 on throughout the whole range of the agricultural industry. There 

 is every reason, therefore, for maintaining our agricultural investi- 

 gation upon a high plane of efficiency, a process which requires not 

 alone well trained men but effective administration. 



Efficiency is a term so overworked and misused that it has lost some 

 of its force as applied to scientific institutions. Whether or not we 

 like the term as employed by investigating bodies, it is an end which 

 must be striven for intelligently. We are now contending with a 

 nation which exemplifies this trait to a high degree, and which shows 

 how far its course in agriculture as well as in other things has been 

 shaped toward attaining it. Our investigation will need to be as effi- 

 cient as it can be made after the war, as well as to meet present needs. 

 This suggests a kind of administration which gives direction to the 

 work as a whole and counsel in individual cases, encourages delibera- 

 tion, and exercises restraint where necessary. 

 105033°— No. 2—17 2 



