402 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



elusions reached -will really represent the best judgment of the 

 association. It is also very desirable that the members of the associa- 

 tion should be able to give their undivided time and attention to the 

 questions before the association at any one meeting. 



There has of late been great activity in the organization of societies 

 of agricultural specialists in various lines for the discussion of the 

 problems in agricultural science relating to these specialties. This 

 movement has progressed so far that naturally a desire has arisen for 

 the affiliation of these organizations in order that provision may be 

 made to promote their general interests and to permit the general 

 discussion of matters in which all or several of them have a common 

 interest. In the discussion of plans for affiliation one fundamental 

 distinction needs to be kept ever in mind. Societies for the discussion 

 of technical and scientific matters do well as a rule to reduce the 

 amount of their administrative business to a minimum. Such busi- 

 ness is apt to interfere with strict attention to the more important 

 problems for which these societies are organized. Their times of 

 meeting and their programmes should, therefore, be arranged so that 

 their members can give undivided attention for the time being to the 

 technical and scientific problems before them. It seems probable 

 that the various societies representing branches of agricultural science 

 can profitably arrange some plan of affiliation. It is much more 

 doubtful whether the center of such affiliation should be the Associa- 

 tion of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 

 This association is so far devoted to the discussion of administrative 

 questions that it has little in common with the scientific societies, and 

 any close affiliation of the two kinds of organizations might easily 

 l^rove disadvantageous to both. At any rate discussion of affiliation 

 should recognize the difference of function dividing administrative 

 and scientific organizations. 



The growing importance of extension work in agriculture was em- 

 phasized at the recent convention of the Association of American 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. Evidently the rapid 

 expansion of this work is bringing new problems to the agricultural 

 colleges and stations. The complicated structure of these institutions 

 and the somewhat confused legislation under which many of them are 

 organized will make the task of properly organizing and adminis- 

 tering extension work a delicate and difficult one. There is therefore 

 great need of careful study of the problems involved in such work, 

 and particularly of its relation to the research and inside educational 

 work. Without doubt the association will do well to make a thorough 

 study of this matter. Its action at the recent convention was timely, 

 and it is to be hoped that much attention will be given to the study 

 of this question at the various institutions prior to the next meeting 



