lOL'O] EDITORIAL. 305 



!i task of unusual fluiractor without first gettin*; all possible li<rlit 

 and makin<; as adequate i)iovision in advance as forethou<!:ht could 

 devise, would be thought lacking in wisdom and to risk partial failure 

 if not disaster. Similarly in research, the review of the field, the 

 study of the problem, and the development of adequate plans are 

 necessary ixreparator}- steps, the product of which is embodied in the 

 project statement. 



Constructive research involves originality, hence it must be l)ased 

 on a knowledge of what has been done and the actual status of the 

 question, and upon this the necessary steps planned to advance or 

 lound out the subject in its scientific aspects. It is the point of 

 departure in a line of inquiry. 



It is self-evident from the nature of the case that a research project 

 deals with something definite — a specific problem or a phase of it, 

 the solution of which seems reasonably feasible and the plan adequate. 

 Science is exact, and an attempt to add to it by research is naturally 

 exact in purpose as well as in method. If something is being sought, 

 presumably that something is well defined and lies clear in the mind 

 of the one seeking it. The undertaking is entered upon with design. 

 And because it has definite aim and attempts to establish some new 

 scientific fact or relationship, it is necessarily restricted in scope. 



This seems so fundamental and obvious that it is surprising how 

 often it has been contravened in formulating projects for research. 

 To find out something new in regard to Nature's laws or manifesta- 

 tions, or to establish something of permanent character not known 

 before requires close application, and it is easy to make the mistake 

 of being overambitious in laying out too large a theme or subject. 

 To expect that sweeping discoveries of original nature may be made 

 at one stroke or gradually disclosed by an aggregation of miscel- 

 laneous data over a broad general field is to misconceive the method 

 of original inquiry and the manner by which the world's knowledge 

 has grown. xV limited undertaking evidences analytical ability in 

 seeing into a subject or dissecting a question which in its entirety 

 may represent a field or a many-sided problem, and it indicates a 

 clear and definite purpose. 



The worker who takes for a project a large question involving a 

 broad field rarely sees clearly what is actually involved in it; he 

 " fails to see the woods for the trees." His ambition or his sense of 

 what it would be desirable to accomplish has become his guide, rather 

 than a clear vision of the nature of the subject and how it must be 

 approached and worked out step by step. In agriculture our prob- 

 lems are unusually complex, and they come to the station workers in 

 their practical form, often representing aggregations of questions 

 rather than specific and limited subjects of inquiry. Before they 



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