EDITOEIAL. 903 



basis for intorpreting the results, and this basis can not be worked out 

 in experiments on a large scale where a variety of uid^nown conditions 

 prevail. 



This discussion is interesting to those connected with the stations in 

 this country, where similar experience has been passed through. The 

 earlier stations were patterned ver}^ largely after the German stations. 

 Later it was found to be desirable for a number of reasons to have 

 fields and herds connected with the stations. The tendency at first 

 was to go rather to the extreme in this matter, but as experience has 

 been gained and the confidence of the farmers secured, there has been 

 a marked tendency to diminish the areas under cultivation, to give far 

 less prominence to the commercial features of farming, and to com- 

 bine, as far as practicable, with the farm operated by the agricultural 

 college. Visitors to our stations do not alwa3^s realize that the farm 

 which they see is not operated entirely by the station, and that the 

 larger portion of it is frequently carried on by the college for use in 

 connection with its instruction, a partnership which in many cases has 

 been nuitually helpful. 



The Lauchstadt farm is hardly a fair representative of the American 

 station farm as it is carried on to-day, and as many of its experiments 

 have been very practical and very unlike the ordinary work of most 

 of the German stations, it is not surprising that a proposition to 

 increase the number of such farms should meet with considerable dis- 

 approval. Our experience, however, has mdicated that without main- 

 taining a large and expensive farm, where many of the operations are 

 purely practical, commercial, or merely for demonstration, compara- 

 tively small farms conducted on the experimental basis may be made 

 very useful to the stations in their work, and to the farmers in whose 

 interest the work is carried on. As primary means of investigation 

 the experiment station farms have often been overrated. Their great- 

 est usefulness is as secondary, or intermediate, agencies for the reduc- 

 tion of theoretical results of scientific investigation to a practical basis. 

 It is believed that such experimental farms would prove to the advan- 

 tage of the German stations in much the same way that they have lo 

 the stations in this country, especially if they are to give serious 

 attention to improving agricultural practice. 



It seems entirely reasonable that the feasibility and the practical 

 application of results of investigations made on a small scale in labora- 

 tories, plant houses, experimental stables, or even on field plats, should 

 be determined first by the stations making such investigations. Other- 

 wise the results must be looked upon as largely theoretical, and if 

 made use of at all by farmers are likely to be misleading. As a rule 

 such studies conducted on a farm basis show that many factors not 

 considered in the smaller trials have to be taken into account in actual 

 practice. The latter studies oftentimes call for the exercise of as 

 much scientific acumen and knowledge and more inventive and prac- 



