Februakt 8, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



131 



touch with the life of rural communities. 



So far we have discussed some of the 

 aims to which it is argued the agricultural 

 college should direct its attention. Let us 

 now consider the aims of the experiment 

 station. If asked what they are, we might 

 answer with the brief phrase — scientific re- 

 search in the interests of agriculture. No 

 answer is adequate, however, which does 

 not include an interpretation of the term 

 research. Should this interpretation be 

 based upon the projects undertaken by ex- 

 periment stations, we would surely arrive 

 at a state of perplexitj' for it would in- 

 clude everj'thing from severe laboratory 

 inquiry to loosely conducted experiments 

 having no possible outcome other than an 

 answer to narrow business questions, pos- 

 sibly only local in their scope. 



If the members of this Section now ex- 

 pect to hear a criticism of the past, they 

 will be disappointed. It is much wiser to 

 consider future efficiencj-, because in 

 former discussions the mistakes of the past 

 have been laid bare. Many of them were 

 almost inevitable mistakes, incident to the 

 rapid development of a new effort, espe- 

 cially under the coercive influence of pub- 

 lic expectancj' reacting upon legislative 

 attitude. May we not, however, be per- 

 mitted to indulge in criticism having a con- 

 structive purpose even though nothing new 

 in the way of suggestion be offered. 



The decision as to whether an alleged 

 scientist is conducting research worthy of 

 the name should depend upon the method 

 or plan under which he is working and the 

 quality of the effort applied to the prob- 

 lem and not upon the title of the project. 

 An experiment station may state that it is 

 studying problems of soil fertility, but if 

 it is doing this merely by means of field 

 experiments directed to determining the 

 relative profit from different methods of 

 culture without at the same time studying 



as exhaustively as possible some one or 

 more of 'the biological, chemical or phys- 

 ical factors contributing to the result but 

 little or no real progress will be made. 

 Our understanding of animal nutrition has 

 not been the result of practical feeding ex- 

 periments to any important extent but has 

 developed out of studies of metabolism with 

 the respiration apparatus and other re- 

 fined methods. Instances of the futility of 

 ultra-practical experiments as a means of 

 arriving at basal facts and principles could 

 be cited in great number. 



One suggestion that reasonably applies to 

 the whole range of agricultural research 

 and which if followed more generally would 

 undoubtedly result in greater investiga- 

 tional efficiency, is that experiment stations 

 should confine their studies to the narrow 

 indi^adual factors that are involved in 

 agricultural production rather than driv- 

 ing directly at broad generalizations or 

 answers to business problems which include 

 the operation of many factors. The his- 

 tory of agricultural science shows clearly 

 that only in this waj- has substantial prog- 

 ress been made. 



In discussing the efficiency of agricul- 

 tural research in the United States our at- 

 tention should not be confined wholly to 

 the experiment stations but should also be 

 directed to the largest single effort of this 

 kind now supported by public funds. 

 Doubtless what will now be said will be 

 taken as a criticism and it is intended as 

 such, not of individuals but of a situation 

 which has grown up under what must be 

 regarded as a mistaken policy. Reference 

 is made to activities in the Federal De- 

 partment of Agriculture classified as 

 agricultural investigation that occupy the 

 time of a large number of men and against 

 which are charged annually millions of 

 dollars of expense. While it is recognized 

 that this department has made many 



