706 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.35 



similar views were expressed in the section on engineering as regards 

 instruction in that subject, and that close cooperation with schools of 

 education was a suggested remedy. 



Another way to increase efficiency in the colleges was proposed by 

 President Waters, of Kansas, in a paper favoring an increase in the 

 length of the college year. President Waters pointed out that under 

 the present plan, the bulk of the enormous educational investment is 

 idle almost one-third of the j^ear, and he also maintained that this in- 

 volves a great loss of time to the student. He summarized tests which 

 indicated that the objection to summer study in warm climates is 

 not valid, these tests indicating that mental efficiency, instead of 

 being impaired by hot weather, steadily increases during the summer 

 to a maximum in October or early November, and then declines to a 

 minimum in midwinter. The ever-growing attendance at summer 

 schools offering college credit was also cited as evidence that the 

 customary vacation is longer than necessary, and that many students 

 welcome the opportunity to hasten the completion of the period of 

 preparation for their life work. 



The employment of graduate students as research assistants in the 

 station formed the subject of a joint meeting of the college and sta- 

 tion sections. Director J. G. Lipman described the system carried on 

 at the New Jersey Stations, where nine such assistants are now at 

 work, and claimed advantages to both the station and the student. 

 Graduate students as a class have been found to possess marked 

 mental keenness and zest, and while not available for the worlring out 

 of comprehensive projects can frequently be entrusted with certain 

 important details, such as the compilation of bibliographies, the 

 recording of results, and the tabulation of data, and even the han- 

 dling of some minor problems like the study of a single soil organism 

 or the effect of a method of treatment. In the discussion which fol- 

 lowed the successful employment of graduate assistants was reported 

 from several other stations. 



A paper by Prof. L. E. Jones, of the University of Wisconsin, 

 took up the same matter from the standpoint of the graduate stu- 

 dent, considering especially some of the difficulties which might be 

 encountered. Among these he mentioned the possibility of exploita- 

 tion, the danger of attracting the weaker graduates, and the desir- 

 ability of minimizing the risk of inbreeding. He maintained that 

 a student ought not to be allowed to continue on such a basis year 

 after year, especially at the same institution, but that even if it 

 involved some temporary inconvenience to the station, he should, 

 whenever his own well-being demanded it, be encouraged to " mi- 

 grate " elsewhere. The fundamental consideration, therefore, in the 



