OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 183 



ment station is by law to be organized as a department of the college with which 

 it is connected. It differs from the ordinary college department in being charged 

 with the work of investigation rather than instruction and in having definite rela- 

 tions with a great industry for whose promotion it is especially established. 

 Through its correspondence, publications, inspection service, and associat on with 

 the farming community it has an increasing amount of business not immediately 

 relating to its investigations, but requiring special knowledge and skill for its 

 successful discharge. To do most effective work the operations of the station 

 proceed in accordance with a well-matured plan which involves the cooper- 

 ation of different members of the staff. So extensive and important has the busi- 

 ness of the stations become that their proper management requires the time and 

 energy of an executive officer, or director. In some cases it may still be possible 

 for the director to conduct investigations in some special line or do a limited 

 amount of teaching, but as a rule he can do litt e beyond attending to adminis- 

 trative duties. In a number of institutions prudential reasons of various kinds 

 have led to the combination of the offices of president and director. Whatever 

 justification there may have been for this in the past there is little excuse for it in 

 the present. The duties of a college president are too multifold and onerous to 

 permit his giving much attention to the special needs of an experiment station. 

 His directorship almost necessarily becomes a nominal affair and the general 

 business of the station is actually performed by some one member of the staff or 

 distributed in a desultory way among a number of subordinate officers. This 

 arrangement has not worked well and should be universally abandoned. 



As regards the business of the station, the director should be clothed with a large 

 measure of authority and consequent responsibility, should plan and supervise its 

 work and expenditures, and control its staff to such an extent as will bring them 

 together to work as a unit for the promotion of the station's success. The mem- 

 bers of the staff should be directly responsible to the director on all matters relat- 

 ing to the station, whatever their position may be in other departments of the col- 

 lege, and should expect to transact station business through the director rather 

 than through the college president or the governing board. A proper independ- 

 ence in the conduct of investigations, or parts of investigation, in their respective 

 specialties and just credit for their share in the station's operations as set forth in 

 publications or otherwise may, it is believed, be amply secured for the expert 

 officers of the stations at the same time that good discipline is maintained and 

 ample provision made for united effort. 



No class of men need to readjust their professional code to the modern require- 

 ments of the organization of great scientific and educational enterprises more than 

 college professors and scientific specialists. A way must be found by which teach- 

 ing and research can be conducted on a system which combines liberty with law. 

 The old regime of the entirely independent teacher and investigator has passed 

 away. The specialization which is simply a form of the division of labor well 

 known in industrial pursuits carries with it a necessity for combination of 

 workers in educational and scientific institutions, as well as in manufacturing- 

 establishments. In a way hitherto unknown , scientific men will be called in the 

 future to work together for common ends. No matter is of more vital importance 

 in the organization of our colleges and experiment stations than the securing of 

 harmonious and concerted action on the part of faculties and staffs for the com- 

 mon good of the institution to which they are attached. One of the greatest diffi- 

 culties now attending the successful management of these institutions is the fact 

 that while specialization has narrowed the field and outlook of the individual 

 officer, there has not been a corresponding recognition of the necessity of readjust- 

 ing; the form of organization and the spirit of the worker to meet these new con- 

 ditions. At no time has there been greater need of the cultivation of an earnest 

 and enthusiastic esprit du corps among the rank and file of educational and scien- 

 tific workers. There are many individual examples of men impressed with this 

 lofty sentiment, but the whole body is not yet animated with it. Obviously, it 

 should especially be a virtue characteristic of men connected with public institu- 

 1 ions. The officers of our agricultural colleges and experiment stations are public 

 functionaries employed to advance very important public interests. With them 

 the good of the community, as involved in the success of the enterprise with which 

 they are connected, should be the ruling motive of action. The fame and emolu- 

 ments of the individual worker should be subordinated to the requirements of con- 

 certed action for a common end. And yet in the long run it is believed the indi- 

 vidual worker as well as the institution will profit by a loyal and self-sacrificing 

 discharge of common duties, for union of effort will bring greater success, and 

 whenever a college or a station is strong and flourishing, credit is reflected on 

 every worker who has contributed to this issue. 



