EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XX. December, 1908. Xo. 4. 



The proceedings of the recent convention of the Association of 

 American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations at Wash- 

 ington developed remarkable clearness of conception as to the ideals 

 which should obtain in agricultural research and the ways and means 

 by which these ideals may be attained. The formulation of such 

 ideals as a basis for the administration and work of our agricultural 

 experiment stations was most definitely made in the reports of the 

 Commission on Agricultural Research and the standing committee 

 on station organization and policy. 



The Commission on Agricultural Research, which was appointed 

 under resolution of the 1906 convention of the association, consisted 

 of David Starr Jordan, Stanford University, California, chairman; 

 '\^^litman Howard Jordan, of Geneva, X. Y. (elected as secretary) ; 

 Henry Prentiss Armsby, State College, Pennsylvania ; Giiford 

 Pinchot, Washington, D. C. ; and Carroll Davidson Wright, Clark 

 College, Worcester, Mass. 



The commission was instructed "to inquire into and report to the 

 association the organization and policy that in the opinion of the 

 commission should prevail in the expenditure of public moneys 

 provided for scientific experimentation and research in the interests 

 of agriculture, to the end that such funds shall be applied in the most 

 economical, efficient, and worthy manner to the production of results 

 of permanent value." It will be observed that the instructions are 

 specific as to the scope and purpose of the inquiry, and limits it to 

 matters pertaining to " scientific experimentation and research " 

 having as an object " the production of results of permanent value," 

 The commission, therefore, was not concerned with general admin- 

 istrative and educational questions, except in so far as they afi'ected 

 scientific investigation and related to the training of men to under- 

 take such investigation. In fact, the report makes very clear the 

 importance of differentiating as fully as practicable between scien- 

 tific research and teaching, promotion, and propaganda work. 



That portion of the report of the commission which relates more 



particularly to the research work of the experiment stations points 



out that : 



301 



