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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1047 



must be to attract and to hold strong, inde- 

 pendent minds, free in thouglit and fearless in 

 character: and then, wholly subordinating the 

 machinery of administration to the ends 

 sought, to lead those minds into the best and 

 highest and most original service of which 

 they are capable. Good administration, like 

 good literary style, sinks itseH and loses itself 

 in the things said and done, and in the work 

 and thought. 



In its relation to the whole university as a 

 division or department of the larger whole it 

 it evident that genuine research in the experi- 

 ment station can progress only where the 

 atmosphere of the university is just, thought- 

 ful, conservative; and in accord with the best 

 traditions of university life and thought. 



I have spoken of two fundamental condi- 

 tions, non-interference and leadership, which 

 within the state universities will favor re- 

 search of a high character. There are other 

 favoring conditions which the universities of 

 high development may establish from without 

 for the benefit of the research spirit in the 

 experiment stations. Let us discuss now two 

 means by which they may exercise a profound 

 influence for good. (1) Why may not the 

 great universities regard the experiment sta- 

 tions as graduate schools? That is what they 

 soon come to mean to the men who do re- 

 search work in them under happy auspices. 

 When the atmosphere of the university is 

 favorable to research: -when men are recog- 

 nized and honored by their colleagues and by 

 the administration because of the high char- 

 acter of the research papers which they have 

 published, then the experiment station becomes 

 a school, a higher university for the members 

 of its staff. In many a university the young 

 man working for his doctor's degree in regular 

 course is not enough alone : he is not forced to 

 draw heavily enough upon his own mental re- 

 sources: to an extent hardly recognized, he 

 may actually develop not his own ideas and 

 lines of thought, but those of the teacher 

 whose mind overshadows him. A research 

 problem in an experiment station is a better 

 test of what the man really knows and can 

 do toward the development of that new knowl- 



edge which is advancement. In the experi- 

 ment station the research worker must build 

 his own road into the unknown. 



I hope the time may come when the larger 

 and older universities will be glad to place 

 students of exceptional power and maturity 

 and promise in the experiment stations to work 

 upon special problems allied to agriculture in 

 preparation for the doctor's degree. The station 

 should furnish books, laboratory, equipment, 

 money enough to enable the aspiring research 

 student to live in relative comfort. But above 

 all it should supply an atmosphere which 

 would welcome and stimulate, and encourage 

 the keenest thought and the bravest effort. 

 Upon the completion of the work to a definite 

 stage, it should be published as the station's 

 contribution to knowledge in that field and as 

 the thesis of the candidate for the doctorate. 

 The completion of successful work giving evi- 

 ence of genuine ability would almost inevi- 

 tably lead to the employment of the man 

 somewhere in experiment station work. Thus 

 the stations would enrich themselves by add- 

 ing to their workers young men of demon- 

 strated ability, of high ambition and marked 

 promise, and of preparation under the most 

 favorable conditions. (2) Yet another way in 

 which colleges of high grade and established 

 reputation may do much toward advancing 

 the scientific character of the work done by the 

 experiment stations is by conferring the doc- 

 tor's degree on men now in station work whose 

 bulletins form a genuine contribution to 

 knowledge. 



It is the writer's firm belief that no single 

 agency and no combination of agencies will 

 or can do so much for the elevation of the 

 scientific work of the experiment stations as 

 the interest and the cooperation of the older 

 colleges with established reputations and fine 

 traditions. The stations will strive then by 

 every means in their power to make them- 

 selves worthy of such distinguished recogni- 

 tion and support. The treatment of accredited 

 institutions as graduate schools and the prompt 

 recognition of research work by the confer- 

 ring of the doctor's degree will exert a con- 

 tinual and powerful infiuence for good upon 



