Januaby 2, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



11 



creating a demand for more highly trained 

 research assistants. It has also tended to 

 raise the standard of scientific publications 

 of the stations. Thus, as I said, with the 

 passage of the Adams Act, the experiment 

 stations entered upon a new period of their 

 existence, one in which fundamental re- 

 search becomes a much greater portion of 

 their functions than has been the case in 

 the past. It is true that some directors of 

 stations, and some governing boards, do 

 not yet understand the true significance of 

 research, or the qualifications necessarj' to 

 pursue it. It is true that some station men 

 do not, in their publications, give proper 

 references to previous work, which may 

 have anticipated their own. It is true that 

 in bulletins and in reports of directors, we 

 sometimes find claims of credit for work 

 which are exaggerated, or perhaps the 

 credit belongs elsewhere; claims which are 

 hardly pardonable, even after making all 

 possible allowance for natural exaggerated 

 opinions of one's own work. Such things 

 will pass away. We need more criticism of 

 our agricultural publications — not de- 

 structive criticism, but friendly criticism, 

 and friendly controversies over disputed 

 points. Criticism of the proper kind is a 

 stimulant to good work, and aids in prun- 

 ing away excrescences such as those men- 

 tioned above. 



The Adams Act created a demand for 

 men capable of research in agricultural 

 chemistry, and other lines of agricultural 

 science. Eesearch is not an ordinary quali- 

 fication, even in young men just graduated 

 from college. The ability to do research 

 work must be founded upon a natural abil- 

 ity and inclination towards such work, 

 developed by broad general training, and 

 wide knowledge of some particular science, 

 and by an apprenticeship under one who 

 is himself a master of research. This ap- 

 prenticeship may be during a course of 



work and study for the degree of Doctor 

 of Philosophy; but it may also be in the 

 process of regular station work under some 

 eminent station investigator. We must 

 recognize the fact that all men capable of 

 research have not been able to secure the 

 Doctor's degree, even though they have 

 done equivalent work. The ability to do 

 research work may be developed by study 

 and training, but it can not be created. 



The Adams Act thus marks an impor- 

 tant step in the progress of agricultural 

 chemistry, other agricultural sciences and 

 agriculture, as a whole. Perhaps equally 

 as significant was the passage of the Na- 

 tional Food and Drugs Act, approved June 

 30, 1906. Taken in a broad way, the pas- 

 sage of this act was one of a series of 

 events in the reaction of the people against 

 dishonest commercial practises. It has be- 

 come evident that the people will no longer 

 tolerate practises which have crept into 

 use, which are morally wrong, but were 

 formerly considered as all right because 

 they were business ; practises which de- 

 ceive the buyer or give unfair advantages 

 in business competition. Business has 

 been a species of warfare, but just as it is 

 now contrary to the laws of civilized war- 

 fare to kill women and children and bum 

 private dwellings, so it is becoming con- 

 trary to the laws of business warfare to 

 cheat women and children and to .deceive 

 the purchaser as far as possible. How 

 much the agitation for the pure food and 

 drug law had to do with this moral awak- 

 ening, no one can say, but no doubt this 

 crusade of twenty-two years had much to 

 do with it — a crusade by an agricultural 

 chemist. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, for many 

 years chief of the Bureau of Chemistry ; 

 secretary of the Association of Official 

 Chemists from its organization until only 

 a little more than a year ago, now our hon- 



