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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1316 



almost always prove to be glad to join a co- 

 operation that appeals to tliem as weJl 

 planned. Of course they can not usually afford 

 to finance such work and they are not always 

 able to obtain financial support from their in- 

 stitutions, but they are generally very willing 

 to work with great enthusiasm on a cooperative 

 project if the actual expenses can be met. For 

 example, about forty workers joined heartily 

 in an experimental study of evaporation in the 

 United States in 1907 and 1908, and all that 

 was needed was that the requisite apparatus 

 and materials should be furnished, together 

 with postage for their reports. Similarly, 

 about eight persons, none of them professional 

 scientists, cooperated very successfully in an 

 experimental study of the climatic conditions 

 of Maryland in 1914. In this case all appa- 

 ratus was furnished, and each station was 

 visited fortnightly by the scientist who had 

 the work in hand. For the most part, those 

 who have been cooperating in the project on 

 the Salt Requirements of Plants (Division of 

 Biology and Agriculture, National Research 

 Council) have provided their own apparatus, 

 but it has been necessary to supply some equip- 

 ment in a few cases and to furnish report 

 blanks, seed, etc. Experience seems to indi- 

 cate that many people are glad to cooperate if 

 a project is well presented and if it has prom- 

 ise of being continued long enough to produce 

 results. In the cooperations with which the 

 writer has previously had to do, a definite 

 time limit was set from the start and enthusi- 

 astic cooperation lasted through the period; 

 indeed, in one case the work was continued by 

 many eooperators for more than a year after 

 the agreement came to an end, but it was pos- 

 sible to find the small amount of needed funds 

 for this extension from sources other than the 

 original one. 



To maintain enthusiasm among a group of 

 eooperators it would of course be necessary 

 for the committee to see to it that an active 

 corresjKindence should be kept up. Every one 

 appreciates being written to about his work, 

 being told of what others of the organization 

 are accomplishing, being able to ask for sug- 

 gestions and advice when difficulties arise. 



etc. This means that a central office for each 

 cooperative organization should be main- 

 tained, and that some competent person 

 shoidd act as secretary and custodian of 

 records. Here is the main limit placed, by 

 the nature of the work, upon the extent of 

 cooperation in actual, concrete research. The 

 number of eooperators would be limited by the 

 amount of time and the amoim.t of assistance 

 that were available to the person acting as 

 secretary. For obvious reasons formal letters 

 would not be satisfactory, and each cooperator 

 should be treated individually. In actual ex- 

 perimentation of an intricate kind it appears 

 that a single individual, with adequate assist- 

 ance, can care in this way for not more than 

 perhaps a dozen eooperators. With a much 

 larger group the work of the central office 

 would have to be divided and the personal 

 nature of the correspondence would be largely 

 sacrificed. Of course a larger cooperative or- 

 ganization might be arranged in sections, 

 each with its central office, but where all the 

 work interlocks intimately with all the other 

 work such subdivision would probably intro- 

 duce difficulties requiring much special study. 

 Furthermore, the experimental results ob- 

 tained by the various eooperators would re- 

 quire very thorough study, tabulation and 

 presentation in other ways, before they might 

 talie their place in the planned whole. This 

 work can not generally be accomplished by 

 the eooperators themselves, though each 

 worker would always make his own interpre- 

 tations as he proceeds. The central office 

 would carry on the work of correlation and 

 would keep the eooperators informed as to 

 new developments coming from the work of 

 others and from combinations of results from 

 several sources. This feature of productive 

 cooperation in research also sets a limit to 

 the number of eooperators that may profitably 

 work together on a concrete problem. Finally, 

 it needs to be emphasized that the work as a 

 whole would require adequate presentation in 

 some suitable form of publication and that 

 individual publications of the eooperators — 

 although these might form a basis for this 

 treatment of the whole problem — would not 



