AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENTS AND RESEARCH *JJ 



Little need be said about the research work in the 

 laboratory and the arrangement of the laboratories and 

 the experiment gardens. It should be remembered, 

 however, that the best work does not always issue from 

 the best equipped laboratories; one with the most com- 

 plete installations and the most refined apparatus takes 

 more time from the scientist than a more simple one, 

 and we must remember what splendid work is often 

 done in primitive laboratories. It seems to me of greater 

 importance to arrange things so that the laboratory man 

 can do his research work undisturbed, without being 

 called upon to perform other duties. Experimental work 

 always takes much time, and good scientific research can 

 only be effected when one can devote himself entirely to 

 it. Therefore, let the laboratory man be troubled as 

 little as possible with administrative work, with educa- 

 tional work, or anything of this kind. Give him his 

 experimental garden close to his laboratory, so that he 

 can walk into it at any moment he chooses, to inspect 

 his breeding plots, his insect house, or his infection 

 experiments. Do not hurry him to get results too soon 

 research work done in a hurried way is always bad 

 work but give him an opportunity to go into the 

 questions as thoroughly as he can to obtain results of 

 fundamental importance. 



The scientist in the field, whether he be geologist, 

 botanist, entomologist, or chemist, has to work in quite 

 another way. He has to investigate the methods of 

 cultivation and to improve them. His part of the work 

 is to put into practice new methods and to investi- 

 gate their practical value, the expenses, and yield 

 obtained. It is an error to think that this can be done 

 in an experiment garden ; the conditions here are different 

 from those on a plantation or in the field of the small 

 proprietor, and this fact makes it impossible to get In 

 the experiment garden a clear and complete account of 

 any new method, be it the application of a manure, a 

 spraying method, a method of tilling, pruning, or crop 

 rotation. 



There are only two ways by which conclusive results 

 may be obtained : either the scientist himself must carry 



