EDITORIAL. 211 



(ions of our knowledge of agricultural Bcienee were not realized, and 

 tlic gaps which we n<>\\ perceive were not apparent. A.8 the work has 

 advanced tin- problems have become more intricate and the call more 

 imperative for systematic and thorough investigation. To realize its 

 importance we have only to remember how the work upon silage pres- 

 ervation was promoted by the discovery of the real nature and cause 

 of the changes, and the influences governing them. Immediately the 

 wav was open for more intelligent understanding of the problems. 

 And in cheese making the fundamental investigations which showed 

 the character of the compounds formed, the nature of the changes, 

 and the influence of conditions clarified the whole subject of manufac 

 ture and ripening, and simplified the solution of minor problem-. 



We are approaching the point in a number of department- of the 

 work where there will he much waste of effort and much delay in 

 reaching the final conclusions unless some classic fundamental inves- 

 tigations can be carried out. To enable this will require some relief 

 from the routine of the class room and the laboratory, and from the 

 various form- of extension work. There is a very perceptible move- 

 ment to free certain of the station experts from heavy teaching duties, 

 which i- already affording some measure of relief; hut the demands 

 of the farmers 5 institute upon the station staff show no general 

 diminution. 



Last year the station men in forty-three State- and Territories took 

 a prominent part in the institute work. This involved three hundred 

 and sixty men, who devoted to it an aggregate of over twenty-six hun- 

 dred days. In one State alone the station specialists delivered two 

 hundred and twenty-three addresses at institute- and similar farmers' 

 gatherings. This shows a jusl appreciation of station men as institute 

 workers. They have a message for the farmer-, and are in position 

 to give advice upon a wide range of practical questions. This work 

 has increased in dignity and importance, as the great majority of 

 farmers now go to the institutes to he instructed, and these meetings 

 afford opportunity for the oral presentation of the station*- work and 

 results. But important as the relation i-. it i- becoming more and 

 more evident that to a large extent a separate stall" of worker- will 

 have to he provided for the institutes. 



Too much of our work i- done under pressure. This applies not 

 only to the experiment- themselves, hut t<» the preparation of matter 

 for publication. This seems inevitable under our present system, and 

 where Mich a mass of material i> published some of it i- hound to he 

 immature. But the matter might he much improved by more careful 

 editing and supervision. 



The lack <>f editing impairs the usefulness and effectiveness of these 

 writings, especially in the case of -tat ion- where little attention is 



