704 EXPERIMENT STATION KECOED. 



ment of agricultural investigation. On these points the ideas held 

 by the station workers themselves Avere at variance, and the general 

 public was naturally in even greater need of enlightenment as to 

 what might be done and how much could reasonably be anticipated. 

 Some people, as already indicated, expected little or nothing in a 

 practical way to come from any form of scientific inquiry, but others, 

 v.ith an over-confidence in the immediate effect of the legislation 

 establishing the stations, apparently regarded it as a panacea for all 

 the ills of farming. The stations were looked to for prompt and 

 authoritative answers to practicajl}^ all questions relating to agricul- 

 ture, and when urgent problems were presented some impatience was 

 expressed if quick results were not forthcoming. These insistent 

 demands for immediate returns inevitably influenced some station 

 workers against their better judgment to try short-cuts in the solution 

 of a problem in hand, to rely upon superficial methods of inquiry, 

 and to publish the results of their findings too soon. Such practices 

 did much in certain instances to prolong the unfavorable impression 

 jis to the thoroughness and accuracy of station work, and even to 

 raise the question as to whether high-grade research in agriculture 

 was a possibility. 



Unfortunate and discouraging as were some of the deficiencies and 

 mistakes of the early Ijeginnings, it should not be forgotten that many 

 of them were well-nigh unavoidable. The stations represented a new 

 experiment in establishing research on a popular basis. They were 

 developing for it new relationships and dependencies, winning their 

 way, building a support for their work which would in the end afford 

 larger opportunity. It was not so much that ideals were lacking, 

 although these were not always of the highest, as that the conditions 

 had first to be made right. The public, and not a few individuals, 

 had to be convinced of the practicability of a system of research in 

 agriculture and a foundation laid in public sentiment. 



Little by little most of the disadvantages formerly surrounding 

 the stations have been overcome. Increased popular appreciation 

 has brought with it enlarged resources, and these have made pos- 

 sible more adequate equipment, better trained assistants, closer dif- 

 ferentiation in both subject matter and kind of activity, relief from 

 a variety of distracting duties, and opportunity for concentration 

 upon problems worthy of study. Fortunate, indeed, is the en- 

 dowed university or similar institution now possessing superior 

 advantages along these lines. 



Statistics recently tabulated by the States Kelations Service show 

 that for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915^ the total revenue of the 

 sixty experiment stations rci^orting was $r),'28G,382.53. This is an 

 average for each State of over 51^100,000, equivalent to the interest at 



