EDITORIAL. 5 



by itself. It may even add confusion, rather than shedding a clearer 

 light or a deeper understanding. 



The individual worker and the individual station can contribute 

 to the sum of definite information and general understanding in 

 proportion as their work is sound and is so planned that it can be 

 correlated and compared and fitted in with the work of others. Alone 

 it is rarely complete and final. The accumulation of data, as an end 

 in itself, is of little general value unless the data are secured under 

 conditions which make them comparable with other data and obser- 

 vations. It is for this reason that much attention is given to uni- 

 form methods of analysis and accepted details of technique. 



As to the opportunity for a greater degree of cooperation and 

 coordination in agricultural experimentation, the similarity of the 

 subjects requiring investigation and experiment in the different 

 natural regions leaves little ground for question. This opportunity 

 is reinforced by an examination of the programs under which the 

 various stations are working. Many problems are, of course, so 

 fundamental in their nature that the results apply to the whole coun- 

 try. Others, however, embody more strictly local or regional as- 

 pects. They do not stop at state boundaries, and the State is not the 

 most effective unit in working them out. Frequently they are being 

 worked upon by a considerable number of stations quite independ- 

 ently and without knowledge of one another's activities until after 

 publication. 



There has often been a feeling that a station's efforts should not be 

 too restricted but should cover the main lines and leading problems 

 in its State. This is doubtless in part responsible for a similarity 

 of the questions studied in States having much in common. With a 

 greater uniformity in planning the danger of unprofitable duplication 

 would be lessened, and the combined effort would go farther in 

 advancing the subject. 



This is primarily what the association had in mind and is aiming 

 to bring about. A committee from the live stock section presented 

 a report which dealt specifically with the subject of feeding. The 

 report contained some pertinent and helpful suggestions as to the 

 organization of feeding experiments, and the method of conducting 

 and reporting them. It suggested also a coordination of the work 

 in that line, with a possible division of the field or of topics to be 

 studied. In order to make the results of feeding studies more ap- 

 plicable to given regions, it was suggested that the Southern States 

 be divided into four natural groups, the work in each to be planned 

 especially with reference to that group of States. 



The discussion at the Knoxville meeting evidently had the experi- 

 mental work especially in mind, rather than the advanced types of 



