302 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1052 



we have now learned to apply in a thousand 

 ways, because it has entered into our phi- 

 losophies. So the accumulation of knowl- 

 edge touching agriculture will give those 

 who come after us a new grasp on the rural 

 condition, a readjustment of ideas, and con- 

 fidence in our ability to handle the situa- 

 tion. Good research, maintained continu- 

 ously and without haste by the ablest men, 

 will make its own application. 



II. THE QUESTION OP PUBLICITY 



Extension work in many kinds of sub- 

 jects has seemed to some persons to be of 

 the essence of publicity. This is a damag- 

 ing error. We have already agreed, I hope, 

 that it is not propaganda; nor is it publi- 

 city, or promulgation, or advertising, or ex- 

 ploitation. It is properly not work to be 

 governed merely by expediency. It is edu- 

 cational work performed elsewhere ; and as 

 such it should have its own orderly pro- 

 gram. 



As newspaper popularity is dangerous to 

 a person who engages in serious and pro- 

 ductive work, so in future will a popular- 

 izing press-service publicity, under what- 

 ever name it may be called, raise against 

 the colleges of agriculture and the experi- 

 ment stations, and the extension teaching 

 — or other similar enterprises — a presump- 

 tion that it wiU be difficult to live down. 

 Remember that the situation is changed. 

 Consider also that the American is over- 

 supplied with what is called news, and is 

 likely to over-estimate the value of press 

 publicity. The agricultural education work 

 has again met the approval of the people 

 as expressed in a piece of great legislation. 

 It should no longer be necessary to make 

 public sentiment. 



It is said that only a certain rather small 

 percentage of the farming people read the 

 bulletins of the institutions, and that, there- 

 fore, there must be some means of publicity, 



some making over of the literature, some 

 new agency invoked, some peptonizing of 

 the work, that shall interest every person. 

 The fact as to percentages may be correctly 

 stated, but the inference is very dangerous. 

 The colleges and stations are not engaged 

 in the dissemination of news; they are not 

 in the press-bureau business. They have 

 ample means of reaching the people through 

 their students, their staff, their publica- 

 tions and their visitors. They should con- 

 trol their own avenues of dissemination, of 

 course giving information and advice freely 

 whenever requested. The reaching of all 

 the people must come about very gradu- 

 ally and without haste. If one fourth of 

 the farming people are informed, there 

 need be no fear, and the remainder will be 

 reached by regular and natural means as 

 soon as they are ready to profit by the 

 work. 



It is doubtful whether any great move- 

 ment or benefit is understood by more than 

 one fourth of the people; and the knowl- 

 edge of it passes very mlich from person 

 to person in a hundred informal ways that 

 are not known of the newspapers. The 

 rise of public sentiment for a better agri- 

 culture does not depend on the numbers 

 of persons who read the experiments at 

 the institutions. 



It is much to be desired that the bulle- 

 tins shall be readable. It is presumed that 

 all publications should be readable, seeing 

 that they are published to be read. Good 

 English, clear and attractive composition, 

 lucid subdivision, the elimination of unes- 

 sential parts, should make a bulletin read- 

 able by any person who has an interest in 

 the subject; and it is not necessary that it 

 be attractive in the newspaper sense. 

 Such publications should be circulated 

 widely, so far as persons seem to want 

 them, and with the purpose ultimately to 

 reach the entire constituency; and if some 



