308 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.43 



One important value of long continued experiments at the present 

 stage lies in the questions they raise and the suggestions they offer 

 for specific studies, and if they do not result in such studies as a real 

 part of the plan, the experiments miss much of their research value 

 and the effort may not attain its research character. Naturally such 

 suggestions can not all be taken up simultaneously or in a single 

 project. They represent a multitude of subjects in investigation, and 

 the studied progress of such experiments ought to help increasingly 

 in the analysis and differentiation of complex questions in soil fer- 

 tility and crop response. 



A project in research seeks an authoritative answer. Its purpose 

 distinguishes it from routine effort. It is what a worker puts into 

 his project, rather than the data he takes out from his experiments 

 that determines its research value. As has been said, " neither 

 logic without observation nor observation without logic can move 

 one step in the formation of science." The mistaking of assembled 

 facts and observations for the solution of a project, without the inten- 

 sive search which the answer requires, may lead to the assumption 

 that a discovery has been made when in reality it has been overlooked. 



Every research project looks toward completion. It is a limited 

 undertaldng, and it is something to be accomplished. As it is not a 

 field of work but deals with a definite topic, the expectation is that 

 it will be completed in a longer or shorter time, dependent on its 

 character, and that the completion will be recognized when the pur- 

 pose has been accomplished. The work may lead to other investiga- j 

 tions or other phases in the same general field ; this is evidence of the'] 

 progress it marks. But the effort should preferably be so organized 

 that the end may be in sight and attainable in a reasonable time. 



Apparently this has not always been given the attention it deserves. 

 The terminal facilities of some projects seem to be poor. The in- 

 ference is that either the workers do not recognize when they have 

 arrived or are distrustful of their conclusions, for there is reluctance 

 in bringing the project to a head and closing it out as far as that 

 particular topic is concerned. Projects are continued without definite 

 conclusions for many years, and are planned to be further continued 

 without materially modifying the theory or plan or narrowing the 

 range. Progress is accordingly slow, except that a large body of 

 data is acquired, but light to guide further effort or to definitely 

 clear up one point after another as steps in progress is not reflected 

 in the course of procedure. 



It is usually impossible and undesirable to place any time limit 

 on a research project, for the rapidity of progress can not be foretold 

 and unexpected difficulties or unusually suggestive results may de- 



