December 3, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



781 



ready to pay taxes for permanent public 

 improvements, if they are confident that 

 the money will be judiciously expended. 

 It is through careful supervision by the ex- 

 perts of the college that the ordinary mis- 

 takes of the planning and construction of 

 these highways and bridges will be avoided. 



PRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION OP IM- 

 PROVED PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



The colleges of agriculture must lead in 

 plant and animal improvement. A plan of 

 improvement instituted by an individual 

 is seldom carried beyond his lifetime. In 

 a college, if well managed, a program of 

 improvement may be carried forward with- 

 out interruption for many generations, in- 

 deed indefinitely. It will be highly profit- 

 able for the state to encourage the more 

 general use of better farm crops and live 

 stock, by disseminating these improved 

 strains, through the college. Already a 

 large impress has been made upon the 

 agriculture of Kansas, in both plants and 

 animals, and experiments are now in prog- 

 ress which it is confidently expected will 

 yield even more important economic re- 

 sults. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



The primary function of the experiment 

 station is to extend the domain of human 

 knowledge. It has been the chief factor in 

 creating agricultural knowledge. It was 

 the experiment station which won back to 

 the college the confidence of the farmer, 

 which confidence had been forfeited for 

 lack of ability to lead him. 



It is the experiment station which has 

 supplied the teacher with accurate and 

 well-organized knowledge to impart in the 

 class room. It has been the experiment 

 station which has provided the way for 

 these in.stitutions to become real leaders in 

 the realm of agriculture and has exerted 

 an influence upon agricultural practise 

 that is epoch-making. 



It is an admirable work to turn out 

 young men ti-ained for leadership on the 

 farm and capable of going among farmers 

 as teachers of correct systems of agricul- 

 ture, or to lead young men who come to 

 the college to a better knowledge of the 

 subject; but, after all, the greatest work 

 these colleges have to do is to equip men 

 with the proper knowledge and the neces- 

 sary inspiration to advance the world's 

 knowledge and to supply these thousands 

 of teachera with something to teach. 



It is, therefore, a fundamental mistake 

 to assume that the duty of the experiment 

 station is solely or even principally to bene- 

 fit the farmer dii-ectly. A larger responsi- 

 bility rests upon it— that of making an 

 exact science of agriculture, so that it may 

 be successfully taught in the colleges, the 

 high school, the graded school, the farmers' 

 institutes, and on demonstration farms. 



The value of research is not limited to 

 the industries. It is the very life of a 

 teaching institution such as this. It gives 

 point to the instruction. The teacher who 

 is an investigator is a live teacher; no 

 man can long keep alive as a teacher and 

 not conduct researches. 



RESEARCH TO ENCOURAGE MANUFACTURES 



But research in these institutions has 

 been restricted to too narrow a field. 

 Little attention has been given to prob- 

 lems other than production problems. The 

 effort has all been in the direction of ma- 

 king two blades of grass grow where one 

 grew before; or of increasing man's effi- 

 ciency with this or that machine. The 

 time has come when its influence should be 

 materially extended. The wastes of a 

 rural community are not all to be found 

 in the processes incident to production. 

 An equal waste occurs in the marketing 

 and utilization of the materials produced. 



The investigations should, therefore, in- 

 clude agricultural manufactures and the 



