110 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



general SA'stematic iusti'uction in the fnndamcutals of science as related 

 to the farm. These short courses are doing a grand work, but they fall 

 far short of compassing the whole field. We must from now on, if we 

 have not done so before, face the problem of providing in the public 

 schools or in widespread special schools the education in the natural 

 sciences which seems to be so essential to those who practice thje art of 

 agriculture. Just how we shall accomplish this does not yet "appear. 

 But, whatever plan may be adopted, there is no avoiding the conclusion 

 that at the head of this educational effort wall stand the Agricultural 

 College for the training of experts, teachers and leaders, and for the direc- 

 tion of plans and methods. This, then, I believe to be the mission of 

 Agricultural Colleges. How shall this mission be executed? 



THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The boards of control of the land-grant colleges have bcf-n inrrnsted 

 not only with a sj-ecial educational effort in the interests of agriculture, 

 but also with the investigation of problems imjiortant to agriculture. 

 The experiment stations are in most cases departments of the State col- 

 leges,, and very properly so, for they are a logical result of college in- 

 fluence. They were made possible through the efforts of agricultural col- 

 lege men, and their staffs have been selected almost wholly from the 

 graduates of the institutions into whose care they are committed. It is 

 safe to say that, without the Morrill act of 1802^ the Hatch act of 1887 

 would even now be a remote possibility. It has become, therefore, the 

 mission of the agricultural colleges to guard and cherish this effort of 

 Investigation as carefully and as loyally as they have the department of 

 instruction. 



But what should this investigation be? In other words — what is the 

 function — the mission, if you please — of the agricultural experiment sta- 

 tion? I ask these questions becaus(\ in my judgment, the true work of 

 the experiment station is not properly understood by the agricultural 

 public. It is even jiossible that here and there a board of trustees has 

 misconceived the real intent and requirements of the Hatch act. 



There is a tendency to ignore the essential difference between instruc- 

 tion in things known and the discovery of things unknown, between 

 teaching and investigation. 



THE FUNCTION OF THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



is to investigate. It is not a pedagogical institution, nor it its primary 

 work to give ])Opular instruction from the institute platform. It is neces- 

 sary for the station worker to keejj in touch with the jiedagogue and with 

 public opinion and needs; but his chief business should be to continuously 

 and severely study the unsolved problems in chemistry, physics and 

 biology^ whose solution is essential to progress in agricultural practice. 

 Now, there will rarely be combined in one man the successful pedagogue, 

 investigator and institute speaker. The limitations of time and strength, 

 TO say nothing of the special fitness and preparation for each line of work, 

 preclude the possibility of the highest success in any direction when 

 thought and energy are so divided. 



Do you, as farmers, demand popular instruction from the institute 

 ]tlatform? It is unwise to ask much of this from the already overworked 



