October 10, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



587 



Government, partly by the States, often by 

 auxiliaries, colleges or universities. I 

 think there is no body of men performing 

 so great service as the experts connected 

 ■with many of these agricultural experiment 

 stations. I have had occasion to corre- 

 spond with them in dealing with the wheat 

 supply and the cotton supply of the 

 country, and in making an effort to get the 

 people of the Piedmont plateau and of the 

 Atlantic Cotton States to renovate their 

 soil by pasturing sheep upon the cotton 

 field, admitted to be feasible, were it not 

 for the eixr-dog; where there is not suffi- 

 cient intelligence to muzzle the cur-dog it 

 is hopeless to expect any intelligent method 

 of agriculture of any kind that can be 

 widely extended. In my judgment one of 

 the greatest services that managers of the 

 Carnegie fund could work at would be 

 aiding those agricultural stations in which 

 the best work has been done. There are 

 two by which the whole standard of dairy 

 products of their respective states has been 

 raised to a very high point ; one or two in 

 which varieties of Indian corn have been 

 generated containing as much or a larger 

 element of protein than is found in the 

 average of wheat. 



Another, where the production of sugar 

 has been dealt with, whether any efforts 

 have been made to hybridize sugar-cane 

 and maize, I know not. A very moderate 

 aid, especially in the matter of laboratory 

 and libraries, might be of immense service 

 in guiding the revolution in agriculture of 

 this country which is now going on ; 

 mainly from extensive ignorant dealing 

 with the soil as a mine subject to exhaus- 

 tion, to an intelligent and intensive method 

 of using the soil as an instrument of pro- 

 duction, responding in its abundant yield 

 in just proportion to the measure of mental 

 energy and practical skill that may be ap- 

 plied to it. 



If you think this missive will be of any 

 service, you are at liberty to print it. 



Edward Atkinson. 



Editor of Science: Your letter of 

 September 8 asking an expression of opin- 

 ion as to the most effective way in which 

 the Carnegie Institution can contribute to 

 the advancement of science, has just 

 reached me in the North "Woods, where I 

 am spending my vacation. 



The question which you suggest, and 

 which is now before the trustees of the 

 Institution, appeals strongly to all men 

 who have at heart the advancement of sci- 

 ence, and I suppose that all such have given 

 the subject some thought. So far as I have 

 been able to consider it, my thinking has 

 led toward the following conclusions. 



I understand the purpose of the Carnegie 

 Institution to be the promotion of scientific 

 research. At the present moment three 

 directions seem to me open to the Institu- 

 tion, along which it may proceed to carry 

 out its purpose : 



1. By establishing and maintaining, 

 under the direction of the trustees, an in- 

 stitution devoted to research. 



2. By assisting men in universities, col- 

 leges and other existing institutions to 

 carry to conclusion researches already be- 

 gun or planned. 



3. By seeking out men of extraordinary 

 ability, outside of regular institutions, and 

 putting them in the way to conduct re- 

 searches or to perfect discoveries. 



Of these three methods of procedure the 

 first is the direct one. My own experience 

 in the scientific work of the Government 

 and of private institutions of learning 

 long ago led me to think that an institution 

 in Washington, modeled somewhat after 

 the Royal Institution, and independent of 

 government support, would have a great 

 opportunity for usefulness. Should the 

 Carnegie Institution provide such an es- 



