158 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 970 



lieve that the low physical development and 

 efficiency of the native races of India as com- 

 pared with the Eurasian or the European in 

 the same country and under the same condi- 

 tions, are due to unsuitable food materials, 

 insufficient diet during the period of growth, 

 or to any other factor than the low-protein in- 

 takes of the adult population, the possibility 

 that the latter is a contributory factor at least 

 can not be denied, nor can it even be supposed 

 to be very improbable. 



H. H. Mitchell 

 Univeesity of Illinois, 

 Urbana, III. 



the spirit of agricultural education 

 The recent communication to Science for 

 May 9 by Dr. Raymond Pearl, and the discus- 

 sion thereon in Science of June 13, by Dr. 

 Davenport, causes one to surmise there are at 

 least two opinions in the United States rela- 

 tive to research in experiment stations. 



Dr. Pearl apparently deplored the seeming 

 fact that experiment station workers must 

 " supplicate the great Goddess Truth with one 

 ear closely applied to the ground in order that 

 he must catch the first and faintest murmur 

 of ' What the public wants.' " He did not say 

 " the public be damned " and perhaps he did 

 not mean to. He did, however, give at least 

 one reader the impression that he has small 

 faith in farmers as patrons of experiment-sta- 

 tion work. He apparently did not council ex- 

 periment station workers to make an effort to 

 adapt their results to the understanding and 

 needs of " uncritical farmers." He would 

 seem to think that this genus farmer, true to 

 type as he is, had better be taught to look 

 " through a glass darkly." 



If agi^ieultural experiment stations were es- 

 tablished for any particular purpose toward 

 our civilization, it was and is to serve the 

 needs of farming people. It is a part of their 

 job to adapt themselves and their work to the 

 needs of such people. If they will do that very 

 genuinely and sincerely, they will find these 

 same people appreciative. If in any such in- 

 stance they do not respond so quickly as they 

 should, the greater is the obligation upon the 



experiment station and its associated college 

 to help them. Who does the work, anyway, 

 which supports these various experiment sta- 

 tions, from the favored state of Maine to the 

 other ocean? 



These paragraphs are not written solely to 

 disagree with so evidently an illustrious 

 worshiper of the " great goddess Truth " 

 with his " ear to the ground." Such would 

 hardly be worth while. But it has virtually 

 been charged in public print, by a reputable 

 member of an experiment station staff, that 

 much work and many workers of experiment 

 stations are insincere. Such a charge, insid- 

 ious as it is, does most insidious damage — un- 

 democratic as it is in spirit, it would lead log- 

 ically to the discrediting of our experiment 

 stations as unworthy of support in a democ- 

 racy. 



If there is anything the matter with the 

 land-grant colleges and experiment stations, 

 it is that they have occasionally loaded upon 

 them such pseudo-scientific junk as Dr. Pearl 

 might apparently like to have our " uncrit- 

 ical farmers " unwittingly support. It is a 

 mighty serious matter that if any of our land- 

 grant institutions fail of popular support it 

 will be because they fall victims to pseudo- 

 science. 



By pseudo-science I mean that so-called 

 pure scientist who does his work or holds his 

 job (and draws his salary) under the name of 

 agriculture, with contempt in his heart for 

 real farm people. Just such codfish aristoc- 

 racy has failed visibly to accomplish much 

 for the peasant farmers of Germany. How- 

 ever erudite it may be, it will fail of accom- 

 plishing much for American farmer citizens,, 

 as such. 



Right now the land-grant colleges and ex- 

 periment stations are on trial to show what 

 real service they are capable of rendering to 

 our farm citizenship. It is within their power 

 to make a most conspicuous success. 



If our American agricultural institutions 

 should continue to organize themselves around 

 pseudo-scientific units — e. g., agricultural 

 chemistry, agricultural botany, agricultural 

 economics, agricultural what-not, or any old 



