EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XX. June, 1909. Xo. 11. 



The list of projects conducted by the experiment stations under the 

 Adams fund inchides sixty-three which fall under the head of in- 

 vestigations in breeding. This relativel}^ large number indicates the 

 popularity of the subject, and an evident feeling that it not only 

 presents large research possibility but is a line in which investigation 

 is greatly needed. 



The attention which is being given to breeding is encouraging, and 

 the number of enterprises suggests the possibility of material addi- 

 tions to the general understanding of its various phases. As the 

 Adams fund is known to be for work of research character, this 

 expectation seems a reasonable one, for it implies a grade of work 

 which is systematic and thoroughgoing, and Avill be continued to a 

 definite conclusion. The men who have enlisted under that fund 

 therefore have a certain responsibility resting upon them for the 

 maintenance of a high standard of investigation, and for the charac- 

 ter of the results which they secure. Like all Adams fund workers, 

 their scientific reputation is at stake, and their conceptions of research 

 as well as their ability in that line will be judged by the direction 

 which their work takes. This will depend ultimately upon the atti- 

 tude in which the man in charge approaches the subject, and the 

 direction in which his real interest lies. It may be modified for a 

 time by external influences, but in the end it will, like all investigation, 

 be the product of the man. 



Quite wide dili'erences still exist in the conception of research and 

 original investigation as applied to breeding. The subject is alluring 

 on account of the practical possibilities it presents. Popular interest 

 in the results of selection and breeding has led some men into it 

 whose main interest apparently centers around the thing to be pro- 

 duced rather than the method or the phenomena involved. There is a 

 failure to distinguish Ix'lwecn the scientific or I'esearch phases and the 

 practical phases of plant breeding — between the search for truth and 



the production of a material thing. 



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