332 
respective States and Territories. The re- 
sults of this inquiry are embodied in the 
accounts of the individual stations given in 
this report. From these it will be seen 
that by far the largest part of the work of 
our stations has direct relation to the im- 
portant agricultural interests of the com- 
munities in which they are located. The 
stations are, in fact, very responsive to the 
- immediate demands of their farmer con- 
stituencies. Their greatest danger is not 
that they will undertake too much work of 
remote practical bearing, but that in the 
effort to meet the calls made upon them for 
immediate assistance they will attempt in- 
dividually to cover more fields of investiga- 
tion than the funds at their disposal will 
permit them to treat thoroughly. This 
temptation the stations generally are, how- 
ever, resisting more successfully as their 
work is becoming better organized and their 
investigations are more carefully planned 
and supervised. The nature of their op- 
erations is also becoming better understood 
by the farmers, and the desirability of more 
thorough and far-reaching investigations is 
much better appreciated than formerly. A 
broader and deeper foundation of scientific 
inquiry is being laid each year, and there is 
a constant accumulation of data regarding 
the general agricultural conditions of the 
different regions of the United States. The 
climate, soil, water supply, native and cul- 
tivated plants, injurious insects, fungi and 
bacteria are being studied in more detail 
and with greater thoroughness than ever 
before. The principles of nutrition of ani- 
mals and the causes of their diseases are 
being subjected to more elaborate and fun- 
damental scrutiny. Methods of investiga- 
tion and the improvement of apparatus for 
research are being given increased attention. 
Much of this work is done without public 
observation and in the intervals of other 
operations. Without doubt it should re- 
ceive more definite recognition and encour- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 322. 
agement. But it is cause for congratula- 
tion that so much patient labor of this 
character is being performed by station 
officers, who, as a rule, are seeking to ad- 
vance the boundaries of knowledge for 
useful ends and are not deterred by a mul- 
tiplicity of duties from giving attention to 
the more fundamental concerns of agricul- 
tural science. And this work is having its 
effect on the more practical operations of 
our stations. These are assuming a more 
substantial and systematic character and 
are being conducted with more definite re- 
lation to actual conditions. They have, 
therefore, a greater assurance of successful 
practical outcome. Questions relating to 
the introduction of plants or to the im- 
provement of the live-stock industry in any 
region, for example, are now being investi- 
gated with a strict relation to the real re- 
quirements of the agriculture of that region 
which would have been impossible a few 
years ago. The present activity in plant 
breeding, as distinguished from the indis- 
criminate testing of varieties, is a good 
example of the raising of the level of ex- 
periment-station work as applied to directly 
practical ends. The plant breeder now sets 
definitely before him the kind of variety 
needed by the farmer in a given region or 
for a given purpose and applies all his sci- 
entific knowledge and practical skill to the 
production of such a variety. The notable 
success of some of the efforts in this direc- 
tion already made are but a foretaste of 
much wider practical results as knowledge 
and experience in this line of endeavor in- 
crease. To do such work effectively there 
must be an almost ideal combination of 
science and practise. And the more we 
can learn definitely regarding the under- 
lying principles, the more surely shall we 
be able to make successful practical appli- 
cations. In such investigations science be- 
comes more practical and art more scien- 
tific. 
