336 
such work. Because a man is required to 
teach many hours he does not thereby be- 
come a successful teacher. The research 
which he is compelled to carry on during 
vacations and at night may nevertheless be 
his real mission, and it will be well if his 
superiors discover this. The leaving of de- 
tails of research work to assistants often 
means that the principal has largely lost 
his interest in it or considers other duties 
more important. We are getting an in- 
creasing body of competent investigators 
by this process, though in too many cases 
their training is proceeding under untoward 
conditions. It will be well if boards and 
presidents will consider more fully the 
actual state of things and make as far as 
possible such a readjustment that the in- 
vestigator will be left very largely to inves- 
tigate and the teacher to teach. It con- 
tinues to be a weakness of a considerable 
number of our stations that they are or- 
ganized on too broad a scale for their re- 
sources. Too great a portion of their funds 
is going into salaries, leaving too little to 
pay the miscellaneous expenses of impor- 
tant investigations. Here and there only 
have the authorities had the wisdom and 
courage to confine the operations of the 
station within comparatively narrow lines, 
leaving important departments of work en- 
tirely without recognition. It is encourag- 
ing, however, to observe that where this 
has been done success has brought addi- 
tional funds with which the scope of the 
station’s work could be safely extended. 
On the whole, the amount of what may 
fairly be called original investigation is, in 
our opinion, steadily increasing. To deter- 
mine this itis not sufficient to consider sim- 
ply the bulletins of the stations. These have 
in various ways been made more popular in 
form and matter. A larger amount of the 
more original work is being recorded in the 
annual reports and the records of more 
investigations are being withheld from pub- 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 322. 
lication until results of value are obtained. 
While there is still need of urging the ad- 
vancement of the general standard of inves- 
tigations, there is every reason to believe 
that our stations are moving onward and 
upward as agencies for the original investi- 
gation of agricultural problems. 
THE INSPECTION SERVICE OF THE STATIONS. 
The amount and variety of inspection 
service required of our experiment stations 
continue to grow from year to year. Be- 
ginning with commercial fertilizers, it now 
includes feeding stuffs, dairy products and 
other foods for man, creamery glassware, 
insecticides, nursery stock for injurious 
insects, and plant and animal diseases. 
For a considerable period this matter af- 
fected only the stations in the Hast, where 
commercial fertilizers were largely used, 
but it is now a live question in all sections 
of the country, since there is no region 
which does not have some evil against 
which the agricultural public is demanding 
protection by inspection under State or na- 
tional auspices. Questions relating to the 
attitude of the stations toward this work 
are therefore engaging the attention of 
station officers throughout the country. 
Wherever this work has assumed consider- 
able magnitude it is evident that it requires 
very ‘careful organization in order that it 
may be conducted so as not to interfere 
with the work of investigation. Where the 
same Officers are charged with both kinds 
of work there is constant danger that the 
severe routine duties of the inspection ser- 
vice will diminish the ability of these 
officers to conduct thorough original inves- 
tigation. It is essential that there should 
be a distinct differentiation of this service 
from the other work of the stations as re- 
gards both funds and time of performance. 
Unless this is done and close supervision is 
exercised, the inspection work is inevitably 
a drain upon the resources of the station 
