EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXIV. January, 1911. No. 1. 



The gathering of experts in various branches of agriculture at 

 Washington in the middle of November was an unusually large 

 and representative one. Rarely have so wide a range of topics 

 relating to education, experimentation, control, and extension in 

 agriculture been considered at any one time. The occasion was in 

 effect an agricultural congress, lacking only a centralizing body to 

 give cohesion and to coordinate the programs of the several societies. 



Within the period from November 10 to 18 the annual conventions 

 were held of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, the Association of Farmers' Institute AVorkers, 

 the Official Agricultural Chemists, the Association of Feed Control 

 Officials, Official Seed Analysts, the American Society of Agronomy, 

 and the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. In ad- 

 dition, the National Association of State Universities was in session 

 and discussed many questions of interest to the agricultural colleges. 



The meetings of all these bodies were held separately and to some 

 extent simultaneously, but there w^as no attempt to spread infor- 

 mation as to their meeting place or programs beyond partial men- 

 tion in some of the announcements of the societies which would 

 meet. The selection of a uniform time and place was purely volun- 

 tary and for the convenience of delegates who might wish to attend 

 the meetings of other bodies at that time. That there was not more 

 overlapping of dates and consequent inconvenience to those whose 

 interest extended to several of the societies was due to the work of 

 the secretaries, who frequently experienced considerable difficulty 

 in making the preliminary arrangements. 



Although a really large body of men were in session and discussing 

 matters of much import, the sessions were so widely scattered, with 

 no common headquarters and no cooperation between societies, that 

 the impression of a large gathering was absent, and the attention 

 which the meetings attracted as a whole was minimized. In many 

 ways the occasion afforded an excellent illustration of the present 



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