EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 87. Octobkk, 1917. No. 5. 



The great importance to the national welfare of research and 

 education in agriculture has been given striking illustration at this 

 time. It has been made apparent that the foundation of our present 

 agricultural preparedness — the thing which makes it possible to 

 invoke and stimulate more intensive and more highly effective pro- 

 duction, is the existence of a vast fund of reliable information 

 resting on a sound scientific basis. It is the product of research and 

 experiment, seconded by teaching to inculcate it and make it more 

 broadly known. It is seen that this foundation was being laid in 

 the past decades by long and patient effort, and in large measure is 

 now ready for use at the time it is needed. The result is a tribute to 

 the agencies concerned. The time has brought enlarged recognition 

 of their services and their inherent possibilities. 



In this country, as well as in the warring countries of Europe, the 

 present emergency has forced home as nothing else could, the de- 

 pendence of power and resourcefulness upon the progress of science 

 through investigation, and the development of men and institutions 

 for it. Research in general has been given a great impetus and a 

 new understanding. Its indispensability to the national welfare as 

 a means of progress has been vastly emphasized, and its place will 

 continue to be magnified after the war. 



Everyone familiar with the process by which knowledge is ad- 

 vanced realizes that it is a relatively slow operation and can rarely 

 be hurried. The general public has not always understood this. 

 The actually new and fundamental facts which can be worked out 

 in time to serve a sudden emergency are quite limited, but with a 

 broad scientific basis of facts and principles to draw upon, profitable 

 suggestion may become fertile in devising improvements and econo- 

 mies of various kinds which are effective in meeting special con- 

 ditions. This is now being done in agriculture and is the large 

 contribution of science in aiding the present situation. 



The lesson has been taught that research can not be carried on 

 spasmodically under stress of temporary emergency, but must go 

 forward continuously, year in and year out, from generation to 



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