EDITOBIAL. 103 



experimentation if this requirement is pressed beyond reasonable 

 bounds, and tlie extension worker must realize the need of thorough- 

 going work. 



A thorough understanding and s^^mpathctic relation between the 

 station men and the extension men is highly desirable. The latter 

 coming in more direct contact with the farmers are in position to 

 explain the station's work and to justify its position. They are also 

 in position to call to the station's attention, in a discriminating way, 

 larger questions in animal feeding which need study. But the ex- 

 tension men must be reasonable in their expectations of the stations, 

 and they must also realize that after all the chief object of extension 

 teaching is to enlighten the farmer and to help him in making himself 

 more resourcefid. Rules for farming to be followed blindly and im- 

 plicitly can rarely be developed, and would be a serious detriment 

 to the men engaged in the industry if they could be supplied ; while 

 carefully made and interpreted experiments can develop facts that 

 will be of wide application, which may be tested out and adapted to 

 the region. But the demonstration of such facts for the information 

 or convincing of the farmers is a matter for the extension department. 

 Such demonstrations will frequently embody some experimental fea- 

 tures, since it is rarely possible to adapt locally the teachings of the 

 stations w^ithout some special modifications which arise from local 

 conditions. This is invariably the case in everyday life. Matters of 

 convenience, expediency, personal preference, etc., modify human 

 conduct. Similar considerations will inevitably modify the local 

 practice in agriculture which the extension department will succeed 

 in implanting. 



The case of the usual feeding experiment is clearl}'^ and fairly set 

 forth in the recent bulletin of Mitchell and Grindley of tiie Illinois 

 Station. In reference to experiments comparing the fattening effect 

 of systems of treatment, etc., the authors say : " Our knowledge of 

 the principles of animal nutrition is too fragmentary to enable us to 

 foretell with certaint}^, except wdien greatly dissimilar, which of 

 two rations for instance will produce the more rapid or the more 

 economical gains in weight for a particular kind of farm animal, no 

 matter how clearly defined or completely analyzed the results may Ije. 

 Actual experiment with those particular rations is generally essen- 

 tial to a satisfactory solution of the problem. However, the informa- 

 tion thus obtained has at best a very limited application to other 

 rations or other conditions, so that such feeding experiments ordi- 

 narily contribute little of fundamental importance to the science of 

 animal nutrition." 



Although the plan of such feeding experiments is simple, the re- 

 sults are often ambiguous and require much care in their interpreta- 



