1916] EDITORIAJL. 707 



employment of this class of assistants should be their ultimate devel- 

 opment as well prepared investigators. 



The responsibility of the stations to present their results in a form 

 available for popular use was emphasized in a paper by Director R. 

 L. Watts, of Pennsylvania, entitled Shaping Eesults of Experiment 

 Station Work for Extension Uses. This paper took the ground that 

 the experimenter himself, who knows the results better than anyone 

 else, should, as a rule, serve as the translator of technical work into 

 popular form. He should, therefore, make a study of methods of 

 presentation of results. Some of the principles to be observed were 

 explained and illustrated by means of charts comparing the effective- 

 ness of tables, graphs, maps, and the like. The use in the popular 

 presentation of results of massive tables, poor photographs, com- 

 plicated charts, and graphs of technical appearance was deprecated, 

 while sl<:illfully designed charts and graphs, good photographs, even 

 if of small size, and condensed tables may be very effective. 



Some general aspects of station publications were brought out in 

 the ensuing discussion. The opinion was expressed that many bul- 

 letins need not be made so technical as to be beyond the comprehen- 

 sion of the farmer, and that others might be published in more than 

 one form. There was general agreement as to a real danger of 

 an overshadowing of the station by cutting off the staff from direct 

 communication with the farming public. While it is true that the 

 time of the research worker must be husbanded, he is none the less 

 entitled to present his results directly and in his own way. Above 

 all he should be safeguarded against any tendency by others to " play 

 up " special features. 



The important subject of the relations of the stations to regulatory 

 work, concerning which the standing committee on experiment sta- 

 tion organization and policy had submitted a report at the 1915 

 convention, had originally been assigned to the late Director Kastle, 

 of Kentucky, and the paper presented in his stead by Dean A. F. 

 Woods, of Minnesota, embodied some material collected by him. A 

 considerable amount of data as to existing methods of handling 

 regulatory work in the various States was summarized, but as an 

 indicator of the desirable future policy the discussion as a whole 

 was far from exhaustive. 



There was considerable support of the view that with well man- 

 aged state boards of agriculture, safeguarded by civil service regula- 

 tions, the stations might well be relieved of police duties alien to 

 their real purpose as research institutions, and that if the stations 

 were to be expected to carry on such work they should organize it 

 as independently as possible from their other work. It was some- 

 67476°— 17 2 



