114 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



public demands. The board should be a legislative body and should 

 not be concerned with the execution of its laws. 



The president of the college, being the highest executive officer of 

 the institution, should be a strong man and should be made responsible 

 for the execution of the regulations laid down by the board. He 

 should be a clearing house of university affairs and the only official 

 avenue of communication between the employees and the board, and 

 in fulfilling this function should deal with each department as an 

 administrative unit. The department, however, should not be the 

 unit of work ; the individual is the unit of work ; and in small insti- 

 tutions there need be no intervening officer between the president 

 and the corps of workers. If, however, the institution is large 

 enough to be organized into colleges there should be not only depart- 

 mental organization but departmental groups, presided over by deans 

 or directors who should function as administrative clearing houses 

 between the president and the heads of departments. 



SECTION ON EXPERIMENT STATION WORK. 



The subjects discussed in this section were Eelation of the Experi- 

 ment Station to Extension Work, and Adams Fund Investigations. 



Discussing the first subject, E. Davenport referred to the great 

 difficulty and importance of the question of organization and admin- 

 istration, and stated that he preferred the plan adopted in several 

 States of organizing each department on the so-called three-legged 

 basis — teaching, research, extension — making the subject-matter 

 rather than the method of work the basis of organization. Extension 

 work to be of most value to adult farmers should emanate directly 

 from men of " the very best training, the highest experience, and the 

 most intimate connection with the new knowledge that is possible of 

 attainment." 



C. E. Thome discussed extension work strictly from the standpoint 

 of a means of disseminating the results of research. He referred to 

 the inadequacy of publications for this purpose even when printing is 

 liberally provided for, as in his own case. He briefly described the 

 extension work undertaken by the Ohio Station, including coopera- 

 tive experiments, exhibits at agricultural fairs, and experiment farms 

 in different parts of the State. 



H. J. Webber stated that the organization advocated by Deap 

 Davenport was in force at Cornell. He thought the extension worker 

 should be to some extent at least an investigator, and that the investi- 

 gator should come in contact more or less wath practical farm prob- 

 lems and have " the inspiration of the farm." 



W. H. Jordan thought it was " not necessary that you put a 

 man on the soil in order that he may work out a truth tremendously 



