584 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1355 



paper." " Either journals should publish no 

 abstracts whatever, or else exact, useful ones." 

 "... before you have gone very deep into any 

 subject search out the literature of it and pre- 

 pare a proper bibliography." 



These are some aphorisms that strike one 

 who is interested in the literary side of sci- 

 ence. Ethics and philosophy as Dr. Smith 

 relates them to science are equally intriguing. 

 The value of this chapter, which appears un- 

 assumingly at the end of the book, is such 

 that the attention of every student of science 

 is earnestly invited to it. 



Frank Place, Jr. 



the directorship of the maine agricul- 

 tural station 



The Maine Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion is by act of legislature created as a de- 

 partment of the University of Maine. Its 

 governing board is the trustees of the univer- 

 sity. The director reports to the president of 

 the university. The heads of the station de- 

 partments report to the director. ' At the re- 

 organization of the station in 1888 the trustees 

 created a representative body to be called the 

 station council for " the development and 

 management of the station." 



By act of legislature the experiment station 

 was directed to conduct investigations into 

 animal husbandry. The prime object was to 

 try to learn how milk production and milk fat 

 production are inherited. As one part of this 

 work a herd made up of reciprocal crosses of 

 high and low producing cows was essential. 

 Such a herd was developed at the university 

 in cooperation with the College of Agriculture. 

 In ISTovember, 1919, without consultation with 

 the station stafF or the station council the 

 trustees ordered this investigation stopped and 

 the animals making up the herd sold. ' In Jan- 

 uary, 1920, after station council action, a com- 

 mittee from that body waited upon the trustees 

 and presented a plan for continuing this in- 

 vestigation at Highmoor Farm. This plan 

 was unanimously approved by the trustees. 

 Among the items approved and as taken from 

 the trustees records of that meeting is " The 

 plan includes the use of certain barn space at 



the farm and the construction of an additional 

 barn for housing, and water supply and equip- 

 ment for . earing for the animals and their 

 products." Acting under this authority the 

 council committee and the station director im- 

 mediately took steps to put this action into 

 effect. A barn was erected, the old barn re- 

 modeled, a well drilled and equipment pur- 

 chased. The building of the barn was in- 

 spected in June when it was about half com- 

 pleted by a committee of the trustees who were 

 appointed by the board with full authority 

 relative to th^ new construction at Highmoor 

 Farm. The committee from the station coun- 

 cil met with the committee from the trustees. 

 Neither at that time nor at any time while 

 the construction was in progress did the trus- 

 tees make any suggestion as to change or 

 modification of the trustee action of January, 

 1920. 



N"ovember 29 without previous notice the 

 director of the station was requested by tele- 

 phone to go to Bangor to meet the board of 

 trustees. When he appeared he was told by 

 the president of the board that the trustees 

 unanimously demanded his immediate resigna- 

 tion. On asking why, the director was in- 

 formed that by building a barn at Highmoor 

 Farm he had exceeded his authority. The di- 

 rector denied that he had exceeded authority 

 and cited the paragraph from the trustee 

 records above quoted. He refused to resign. 

 At about 10 o'clock the morning of November 

 30 he received a notice signed by the clerk 

 of the board of trustees notifying him that the 

 trustees had removed him from being director, 

 the removal to be effective December 1. The 

 director spent the remainder of the 30th put- 

 ting station matters in the best shape possible 

 for leaving in the limited time. As the trus- 

 tees had delegated no one to take his place 

 and as they had igTiored the president of the 

 university in the matter by sending the com- 

 munication of removal direct to the director, 

 the director suggested to the heads of the sta- 

 tion that they should continue to act auto- 

 matically in station management as they 

 would were the director temporarily absent. 

 And there the matter now rests. 



