19171 EDITORIAL. 405 



under way ever since the Adams fund came are still very far from 

 solution and are seen to be more intricate and less feasible in their 

 entirety as knowledge advances. To abandon them is looked upon 

 as an admission of weakness or of bad judgment, and so they may be 

 continued after their defects have become apparent. 



This is no argument against the project system but it is a sign 

 for caution, which happily is finding expression in the newer under- 

 takings. 



The establishment and successful maintenance of a considerable 

 number of technical agricultural journals in this country is a devel- 

 opment of the past decade of much importance to agricultural re- 

 search. It reflects in a striking manner the growth of agricultural 

 investigation and the substantial support now available for periodi- 

 cal literature of this sort. It has increased materially the channels 

 open for the publication of agricultural research, assembled many 

 of the most important studies in the various specialized fields, and 

 in other ways done much to unite workers and foster their interests. 



The advantages of an American periodical devoted to agricul- 

 tural science were foreseen by a number of teachers and investiga- 

 tors at a comparatively early date. In 1884 a meeting was held at 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture for the express purpose of con- 

 sidering the establishment of a journal of scientific agriculture. It 

 was announced at this meeting that about forty of the leading agri- 

 cultural workers of the period, among them Brewer, Johnson, 

 Atwater, and Hilgard. had agreed to become contributors and that 

 a guarantee fund had been secured to provide the necessary financial 

 support, but the project was abandoned for the time being because 

 of failure to secure an editor. 



Advocacy of a journal continued, however, and in January, 1887, 

 appeared the initial number of a monthly known as Agricultural 

 Science. This was a private enterprise with Prof. Charles S. Plumb, 

 then of the New York State Station, as editor and publisher. It 

 constituted the first journal to be devoted to agricultural science 

 not only in this country but in the English language. It also ante- 

 dated by several weeks the passage of the Hatch Act, and by two 

 years the establishment of Experiment Station Record. 



The purposes of the new publication were set forth in its editorial 

 columns as follows : " To publish original work, the results of ex- 

 periments conducted in the promotion of agricultural science in 

 America, either by individuals or otherwise; to disseminate knowl- 

 edge relating to agricultural research, as obtained from researches 

 carried on in Europe or other portions of the globe, that students 

 and investigators may have the opportunity to learn of the work 

 and results of co-laborers in the field; that students of agriculture, 



