144 The Department of Plant Physiology [3842 
The investigation carried on here has itself been largely 
preparatory for future work; the problems that we have de- 
sired to attack could not be undertaken until the field (which 
is a new one) had been specially prepared, so that our con- 
tributions to the science are to be regarded largely as begin- 
nings and preparations. It appears likely that many of these 
lines of work will be carried out elsewhere, either by students 
of this university or by others who become interested as the 
field is opened. The general nature of our problems will be 
touched upon in the following section. 
One other feature of the educational and preparatory work 
carried on by this department deserves mention, a feature 
that may be fully as important as is the direct training of 
students. This laboratory has furnished information and ad- 
vice to many persons not directly connected with it regard- 
ing problems bearing on the water relations of plants, and 
has thus been able to render more or less valuable aid to stu- 
dents in other institutions and investigators in experiment 
stations, etc. To a lesser degree we have been called upon to 
aid outside investigators in other fields of plant physiology. 
It has been the practice of the department to furnish ideas 
and suggestions quite freely to all inquirers, a practice in- 
volving the writing of explicit and detailed letters, but one 
which seems to be fully as legitimate and valuable as are the 
consultations with our own students in residence. It is in- 
tended that no such inquiries from outside the depart- 
ment shall be subject to neglect or perfunctory reply; such 
information and suggestions as we have are furnished 
promptly and freely to all who ask. This makes the hand- 
ling of the correspondence of the department a somewhat 
serious undertaking, but one that is fully worthy of the time 
and energy so expended. The number of persons, in many 
regions of the world, who are thus more or less indirectly 
connected with this laboratory, is much larger than the 
number of workers who have actually been in residence here. 
Also, the director of this laboratory devotes considerable time 
