EDITORIAL. 103 



special service has been provided to propagate and translate into prac- 

 tice the accumulated results and the latest conclusions. This agency- 

 will furnish an even more intimate and vital link between the sta- 

 tions and the farming public than the stations could themselves 

 maintain. And sooner or later in every State, no matter how back- 

 ward and primitive the agriculture may now be, the success of the 

 teaching and aid of the extension service will rest back upon the 

 work of the experiment stations. 



"Wlien the extension legislation was being considered large and con- 

 fident predictions were frequently made as to what would result in 

 American agriculture if the findings of the experiment stations and 

 of this Department were put into practice the country over, and es- 

 timates in this line continue to be made. They are interesting, and 

 are startling to a degree which has aroused widespread confidence in 

 the possibility of improvement and in the basis at hand for effecting 

 such an improvement. It has even been suggested that we could 

 afford to pause in our labors in acquiring exact information and de- 

 vote a while to disseminating it and helping the public to catch up. 



This zeal for the teaching of better agriculture should not be 

 allowed to minimize the necessity for the continued work of the 

 stations. It is no time for the public or the station worker to be 

 lulled into inaction by the lead the stations have attained over prac- 

 tice. Once the new movement for extension teaching is in full swing 

 the public, at least a part of it, will overtake us more rapidly than 

 we realize. Future progress in investigation will necessarily be 

 slow ; it can not be hurried. Soon some of the weak or deficient spots 

 in the present body of information will be disclosed, and the sound- 

 ness and permanence of some of the scientific doctrine may be called 

 into question. The extension work will put the conclusions of prac- 

 tical tests, of extended experiment, and of searching inquiry to the 

 most rigid test under a great variety of practical conditions. It 

 would be surprising if some of these were not modified or at least 

 found economically inapplicable; and where the theory rests alone 

 on tradition or uncontrolled experience, rather than on the basis of 

 science, its inadequacies will sooner or later be brought to light. 



The fear is not that the station work as a whole may prove inade- 

 quate to the test, as far as could reasonably be expected, but rather 

 that through misunderstanding and overconfidence in its sufficiency, 

 its future may be allowed to suffer. The progressive, thorough, and 

 fundamental studies of the stations are needed quite as much as ever 

 before — in some ways more so. The pressure upon the stations will 

 be no less, although it may be of a more patient and understanding 

 nature; and their responsibilities will be increased because of the 

 greater dependence upon them. 



