THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



attack upon the cereals or the vegetables or 

 the fruits. In case there is urgency, the spe- 

 cialist in charge of the department under 

 which the threatened disaster logically falls 

 takes the first train to the infected region. It 

 may be that he can at once suggest the 

 remedy, or it may be that he must make a 

 closer study, if some new situation has devel- 

 oped, in order to grasp the situation ; in which 

 case he will suggest every possible means for 

 immediate relief while investigating, to prevent 

 a recurrence of the disaster another year. 



In this way the aid of the bulletins, of the 

 personal letters, or even of the personal visits 

 which the farmers make to the stations, when 

 they live near by, is supplemented in a de- 

 cidedly practical way. Now and then special 

 excursions of farmers, fruit-growers, and the 

 like, are made to the stations, when the practi- 

 cal workings of the institutions are explained 

 by the experts in charge. 



Important as has been the aid of the state 

 experiment stations to the American farmer, 

 including under that term all who seek their 

 living from the soil, it is far less than the aid 

 still to come through the yet greater work 



333 



