702 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 35 



by President Wilson, tended further to focus attention in the city on 

 matters pertaining to agriculture to an unusual degree. 



The program of the iVssociation of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations, however, was by no means restricted to 

 agricultural lines. The interests of the association are, of course, 

 considerably broader in scope, and this year in particular much em- 

 phasis was put upon what may be termed its nonagricultural phases. 

 In the general sessions especially, aside from the addresses of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture and the president of the association and 

 the presentation and discussion of the reports of the standing com- 

 mittees, attention was centered quite largely on the proposed estab- 

 lishment by the Federal Government of engineering experiment 

 stations, the development of military training in the land-grant 

 colleges, and the best ways of conducting extension work in home 

 economics and similar lines of interest to farm women. The 

 prominent position accorded these topics, coupled with those pre- 

 sented at the two sessions of the newly formed subsection of engineer- 

 ing, gave to the program an appearance of less emphasis on the dis- 

 tinctively agricultural phases of the work than has been usual in 

 recent years. 



This trend of the convention, however, in no sense betokened a 

 diminution of interest in agricultural education and research. On 

 the contrary, it may be questioned whether the realization of the out- 

 standing importance of these phases, and especially the need of ade- 

 quate and systematic provision for research, was ever more strongly 

 in evidence. For example, it was the dominating note in the presi- 

 dential address, given by Director C. E. Thorne, of the Ohio Station, 

 upon the subject of Progress of Education and Research in Agricul- 

 ture. Director Thome reviewed the history of the land-grant col- 

 leges, especially in their relations to the experiment stations, and 

 sounded a note of warning that the temptation to neglect the work of 

 the stations in order to take care of the great pressure for educa- 

 tional work must be strongly resisted if permanent progress is to be 

 made. As he pointed out, " science can not stand still. Every exten- 

 sion of the horizon of our knowledge only expands the boundary of 

 the unknown, and makes yet more imperative the necessity for 

 further research, and the institution which contents itself with pres- 

 ent knowledge will soon find itself forgotten." 



One interesting result of the discussion of topics seemingly little 

 related to agriculture was the revelation of numerous ways in which 

 they are in reality closely associated. For example, in the animated 

 discussion of the proposed initiation of Federal aid to research in 

 engineering, one of the principal arguments advanced for the loca- 



