EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 4;5. Septembeu, 1920. No. 4. 



The project as a means of formulating and defininf^ a scientific 

 iiKjuiry has rapidly gained grouiiiL 'ind has come into quite general 

 use. It is an evidence of clearer and more deliberate planning, and 

 of more systematic, ordered effort. As such it is a distinct sign of 

 advance. 



Objection to the project system in experiment station work, quite 

 marked at one time, has Very largely died out, for it has proved to be 

 a reasonable basis of operation in research as in engineering or in- 

 dustry, and to have marked advantages. It is found not to impose 

 undue restraint on the freedom of investigation, but on the other 

 hand to give stability and direction to it. It has proved to be a 

 ronvenience to workers as well as administrative officers, and to be an 

 essential in organized effort. Nothing has done more to give charac- 

 ter and direction to the various types of station work, or to promote 

 adequate preliminary study and planning. 



It would have been well if the project system had come into nse in 

 the early days of the stations, when there was need in so many cases 

 for clear thinking in regard to the laying out and conduct of experi- 

 mental inquiry, and when with many inexperienced workers it was 

 important to know both whither they were headed and when they had 

 actually arrived. Such a system might have enabled the checking of 

 some rambling efforts, the purpose and means for which were vague 

 or inadequate, and thus have resulted in economy of the meagre 

 funds. At all events, it would in some measure have avoided activi- 

 ties which turned out to be misdirected, and have hastened the da}^ of 

 more deliberate planning. It was because both the aim and the 

 method were often indefinite or obscure that there was difficulty in 

 following them or holding them within reasonable bounds. A false 

 view of freedom, of the informality of research, and dependence on 

 the inspiration of the moment, often made it difficult to formulate 

 these activities, and was the main basis of objection to attempting to 

 do so. 



While the project system has now become an accomplished fact in 

 station work, in its practical form it represents a considerable variety 



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