236 The American Naturalist. [March, 
and easily applied, and by means of which the data obtained will 
be readily available at any time. Much aid also can nearly 
always be obtained by the judicious use of student assistants and 
local naturalists, both in making collections and working out 
results. 
I am well aware that this idea will not meet with favor in the 
eyes of many critics of station work, especially those who are 
crying for a deluge of immediate practical results, and who often 
can see nothing “practical” in any result which does not carry 
with it as a passport the odor of the barnyard, the aroma of the 
onion bed, or the subtle flavor of insecticides like whale-oil soap. 
But criticisms from such sources should not prevent the under- 
taking of the work. The history of all the sciences related to 
agriculture shows that the investigations of greatest value have 
been those having to do with the discovery of general laws, and 
on the surface such investigations have often seemed of the most 
theoretical and impractical nature. 
