EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



Ohio. 



Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster. 

 Oklahoma. 



Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Still- 

 water. 

 Oregon. 



Oregon Experiment Station, Corvallis. 

 Pennsylvania. 



The Pennsylvania State College Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, State College. 

 Philippine Islands. 



Lamao Experiment Station, Lamao, Bataan. 

 Porto Rico. 



Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station, Maya- 



guez. 

 Porto Rico Sugar Producers' Experiment Station, 



Rio Piedras. 

 Rhode Island. 

 Agricultural Experiment Station of the Rhode 



Island State College, Kingston. 

 South Carolina. 



South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Clemson College. 

 South Dakota. 



South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Brookings. 

 Tennessee. 



Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Knox- 

 ville. 



Texas. 



Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College 

 Station. 



Utah. 



Agricultural Experiment Station, Logan. 

 Vermont. 



Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, Bur- 

 lington. 

 Virginia. 



Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacks- 

 burg. 



Virginia Truck Experiment Station, Norfolk. 

 Washington. 



Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 Pullman. 



West Virginia. 



West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Morgantown. 

 Wisconsin. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the University 



of Wisconsin, Madison. 

 Wyoming. 



Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, Laramie. 



Research in horticulture. (U. P. Hedrick.) 



For the purposes of this discussion we need not con- 

 cern ourselves with formal definitions of horticulture 

 nor discuss its several divisions. (For definitions, see 

 Horticulture.) It is more to the point to indicate the 

 nature of the research problems to be solved in the 

 several loosely correlated industries of which horti- 

 culture is composed. Experimenters in horticulture 

 may investigate the phenomena of science, the mechani- 

 cal methods of an art, and latterly they have come to 

 have much to do with business affairs. What should 

 be the relative status of science, art and business in 

 research work in this branch of agriculture? 



Horticulture is a "no man's land" in science. Bota- 

 nists, chemists, entomologists, bacteriologists and genet- 

 icists, join in solving its problems. First one science 

 and then another lets in its light and illuminates an 

 obscure nook. Thus, systematic botany, in the classi- 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS 1197 



fication of orchard and garden plants, began the con- 

 struction of rational horticulture; then came chemistry 

 to furnish knowledge of soils and fertilizers; botany 

 and entomology brought aid in combating innumerable 

 pests. When, however, a discovery is made in any 

 science men are drawn to it as moths to a light, and 

 botany and entomology, which have recently been 

 most prominent, are now giving way in horticulture 

 to genetics and the sciences having to do with the soil, 

 discovery and activity being greatest in these fields. 

 Thus,, there is no science of horticulture, but there is 

 science in horticulture. The science field, also, is as 

 open to horticulturists as to experimenters in the 

 sciences that form the foundation of horticulture. 



The appli cation of science is art. The botanist and 

 entomologist discover the life-history of insects and 

 fungi; the control of the pests, by means of spraying 

 or otherwise, is an art. The discovery of the laws that 

 govern soil-moisture and soil-heat is a field for the 

 scientist; the art of tillage is or should be founded on 

 the science of soil physics. A widely different phase 

 of physics comes into action when the mechanical 

 engineer is asked to help solve the problems of cooling, 

 storing and transporting horticultural products. The 

 manipulation of plants in propagating, grafting and 

 training is an art based on plant physiology. Thus, 

 research work in horticulture partakes of the "prac- 

 tical;" indeed, applicability usually must be a para- 

 mount consideration in investigations in this field. 

 Much that is called "pure science" is helpful in horti- 

 culture, but the horticulturist is chiefly concerned 

 with applied science. 



So, also, there are inter-relations between business, 

 science and art in horticulture. A prevalent phase of 

 experimentation is the determination of the cost of 

 the unit the barrel of apples, for example of agri- 

 cultural products; other business experiments seek to 

 determine the outgo and the income of the orchard 

 and garden; still others consider the relative profits 

 of two crops in certain soils or other environmental 

 conditions. These problems are largely studies of 

 business methods and are not true research subjects, 

 but one can conceive of scientific investigations in the 

 business affairs of horticulture and certainly science 

 and business come into close touch in this industry. 



The distinctions that have been made are not clearly 

 defined in the activities of horticulturists. Too often 

 men supposed to be engaged in research work in horti- 

 cultural science are busy with the art very often not 

 in discovery or invention in art but simply with the 

 details of well-established art. Much that is put out 

 as the result of research work is a description or a dis- 

 cussion of the technic of horticulture. A study of 

 business methods, pure and simple, is frequently 

 offered as the results of research. These isolated 

 observations on the art and business of horticulture, 

 having no relation to either pure or applied science, 

 ephemeral and of but limited application, bear but 

 poorly the brand of investigation. Data in the art 

 and business of horticulture, to be worth the while of 

 the true research worker, must be a part of the coor- 

 dinated and classified knowledge of horticulture, must 

 be of more or less universal application, and must deal 

 more or less directly with scientific principles. Investi- 

 gating is not teaching, nor demonstrating, nor observ- 

 ing, nor describing, nor proving, unless primarily 

 benind any of these is the design to discover laws. 



On the other hand, much that passes as scientific 

 investigation turns out to be theory made attractive 

 by the rouge of speculation; or it is controversy for 

 controversy s sake; not infrequently the offering of 

 science is an old garment made over in a new style; 

 or it is a small truth much adorned; sometimes the 

 scientific offering but heralds a discovery which never 

 appears. Pseudo-research is by no means confined to 

 the practical phases of horticulture. 



