EDITORIAL. 5 



The idea has been current to some extent that the stations conkl 

 train their OAvn men, at least in part. This has led to the not unusual 

 practice of taking men direct from the college course and putting 

 them through a sort of apprenticeship in station work, which has 

 been accepted by the men as equivalent to a graduate course in a uni- 

 versity. As a matter of fact, this is usually far from being the case. 

 The stations can advise men in their reading, can assist them in get- 

 ting a clear conception of the spirit of their work, and can stimulate 

 them to secure more adequate preparation through university courses. 

 But it must be left to the colleges and the universities to provide 

 courses of instruction which prepare men to undertake advanced work 

 and give them the proper point of view. They must bring to the sta- 

 tion a thorough start in their education for its work. 



The stations on their part should stimulate their men to pursue ad- 

 vanced study if they are to rise above the grade of a quite subordinate 

 assistant. It should give them no encouragement to think that in the 

 present status of station work they can get along without it. Indeed, 

 they might well make such graduate study a condition of advance- 

 ment to a position of independent work, as some have already done. 



In the past the stations have had very largely to adapt such men as 

 the market afforded to their special field of work. This must always 

 be the case to some extent. The work is so special that no institution 

 could be looked upon to provide courses of instruction in it. But 

 this is quite different from providing the fundamental education. 

 Education is not only the imbibing of information but the securing 

 of a point of view and an ability to w^ork out problems for one's self. 

 This is the work of the preparatory institution. The value of a 

 scientific fact and the method by wdiich it is established is a part of 

 a man's scientific education. Without it he will have distinct limita- 

 tions as a station man, and will never be able to progress far in 

 independent work. 



The question is already being asked whether the courses of the 

 agricultural colleges provide men with the proper groundwork for 

 station investigators. In some cases, at least, they clearly do not 

 inculcate the point of view which the prospective station man should 

 liave. He does not receive a correct idea of values as applied to dif- 

 ferent classes of experimental work, or a true conception of the rela- 

 tions which science bears to the practical art of agriculture. The 

 means by which science may be made to clear up the mysteries of 

 plant and animal growth are not always brought home to the student, 

 even in an elementary way, and the relative merits of different kinds 

 of experimentation and investigation are rarely presented in such a 

 way as to give him a true perspective or an intelligent discrimination. 



