Febbuabt 26, 1909] 



SGIENGU 



329 



and that of America, and if we follow the 

 latter to its sources we find that the early 

 English settlers on the east coast are the 

 descendants of German conquerors of Eng- 

 land and their extension towards the west 

 was followed and reinforced by a powerful 

 wave of peaceful German immigrants, dif- 

 fering in language but similar in kind, and 

 both waves formed one population in which 

 the old German spirit of expansion is very 

 active. 



It is a curious chance that America re- 

 ceived its name from a German geographer. 

 Old Professor Waldseemueller made a mis- 

 take, indeed, when he named the new coun- 

 tries at Brazil after the Florentine Amerigo 

 Vespucci. It would have been far more 

 just to name the new world after Colum- 

 bus, but though "Waldseemueller recognized 

 his mistake and withdrew the name, it re- 

 mained in use. And curiously enough, 

 that Amerigo Vespucci whose name gave 

 origin to the name of America, had himself, 

 though an Italian, still a German family 

 name, Emmerich, Emery in English. Thus 

 America is a continent with a German 

 name, the meaning of which might, per- 

 haps, be interpreted as "rich in corn";^ 

 if this is correct. Professor "Waldseemueller 

 chose an incorrect but appropriate name. 



There are many connecting links between 

 North America and Germany, but the 

 strongest of these links is mutual friend- 

 ship. True friendship needs no long 

 words. I say to my friend, " Come, enter 

 my house and feel at home"; and so I 

 invite you to enter my home with me and 

 to listen to my lectures on Germany. 



Albrecht F. K. Pence 



REPORT OF TBE COMMISSION ON AGRI- 

 CULTURAL RESEARCH 



The Commission appointed by the. Asso- 

 ciation of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations in 1906, to consider 



*Amar, old German, a kind of wheat. 



the organization and policy that should pre- 

 vail in the expenditure of public funds for 

 agricultural research, and kindred matters, 

 has presented its report. 



The members of the commission, David 

 Starr Jordan, Stanford University, Cali- 

 fornia, chairman; Whitman Howard Jordan, 

 of Geneva, New York, secretary ; Henry Pren- 

 tiss Armsby, State College, Pennsylvania; 

 Gifford Pinchot, Washington, D. C, and Car- 

 roll Davidson Wright, Clark College, Wor- 

 cester, Massachusetts, agree in signing the 

 report except that Mr. Pinchot makes some 

 reservations. They summarize their recom- 

 mendations as follows : 



1. Every effort should be made to promote the 

 training of competent investigators in agriculture 

 both in the agricultural, and, so far as practicable, 

 in the non-agricultural, colleges and universities, 

 and their training should be as broad and severe 

 as for any other field of research. 



2. The progress of agricultural knowledge now 

 demands that agricultural research agencies shall 

 deal as largely as possible with fundamental prob- 

 lems, confining attention to such as can be ade- 

 quately studied with the means available. 



3. The work of research in agriculture should be 

 differentiated as fully as practicable, both in the 

 form of organization and in the relations of the 

 individual investigator, from executive work, 

 routine teaching, promotion and propaganda, and 

 should be under the immediate direction of an 

 executive trained in the methods of science who 

 should not be hampered by other duties of an 

 entirely unlike character. 



4. The investigator should be free from all co- 

 ercion whatever. In reaching his conclusions he 

 should be equally free from the prescription of 

 received opinion and the temptation to exploit his 

 results for the purpose of obtaining future sup- 

 port. To this end, his work should be as far re- 

 moved from immediate dependence upon legisla- 

 tion as is consistent with due responsibility to the 

 public, and his relations to the public and to the 

 organization of which he is a member should be 

 such as to promote individual initiative and not 

 interfere with freedom of conclusion or utterance 

 on scientific questions. 



5. There should be a clearer definition of the 

 relative fields of work of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and the experiment sta- 

 tions. The dominance of the stations within their 



