Miseellaneoim. 



340 



No one will dispute the need of more investigation of a fundamental 

 character. The experiment stations themselves have demonstrated this, and 

 their work has led up to it. Before their advent the limitations of our knowledge 

 of agricultural science were not realized, and the gaps which we now perceive 

 were not apparent. As the work has advanced the problems have become more 

 intricate and the call more imperative for systematic and thorough investigation. 

 To realize its importance we have only to remember how the work upon silage 

 preservation was promoted by the discovery of the real nature and cause of the 

 changes, and the influences governing them. Immediately the way was open for 

 more intelligent understanding of the problems. And in cheese making the 

 fundamental investigations which showed the character of the compounds formed, 

 the nature of the changes, and the influence of conditions clarified the whole 

 subject of manufacture and ripening, and simplified the solution of minor problems. 



We are approaching the point in a number of departments of the work 

 where there will be much waste of effort and much delay in reaching the final 

 conclusions unless some classic fundamental investigations can be carried out. To 

 enable this will require some relief from the routine of the class room and the 

 laboratory, and from the various forms of extension work. There is a very per- 

 ceptible movement to free certain of the station experts from heavy teaching 

 duties, which is already affording some measure of relief ; but the demands of 

 the farmer's institute upon the station staff show no general diminution. 



Last year the station men in forty-three of the United States and Terri- 

 tories took a prominent part in the institute work. This involved three hundred 

 and sixty men, who devoted to it an aggregate of over twenty-six hundred days. 

 In one State alone the station specialist delivered two hundred and twenty-three 

 addresses at institutes and similar farmer's gatherings. This shows a just appre- 

 ciation of station men as institute workers. They have a message for the farmers, 

 and are in position to give advice upon a wide range of practical questions. This 

 work ha& increased in diginity and importance, as the great majority of farmers 

 now go to the institutes to be instructed, and these meetings afford opportunity 

 for the oral presentation of the station's work and results. But important as 

 the relation is, it is becoming more and more evident that to a large extent a 

 separate staff of workers will have to be provided for the institutes. 



Too much of our work is done under pressure. This applies not only to the 

 experiments themselves, but to the preparation of matter for publication. This 

 seems inevitable under our present system, and where such a mass of material 

 is published, some of it is bound to be immature. But the matter might be much 

 improved by more careful editing and supervision. 



The lack of editing impairs the usefulness and effectiveness of these writings, 

 especially in the case of stations where little attention is evidently paid to the 

 matter. In reviewing publications we are not infrequently misled or in doubt 

 as to some important points, owing to the way in which the matter is presented. 

 The data should be carefully computed and compared, and summaries of the more 

 important results given in the clearest manner. A table is a difficult thing for 

 many people to understand, but the difficulties are greatly enhanced if the table 

 is improperly constructed. There is often a feeling that the publications must 

 be the complete record of the station's work, and hence publications are loaded 

 down unduly with the data which adds to the expense of publication and are of 

 interest to only an occasional reader. Ultimately the station's publications should 

 give the permanent record of their work, as far as the important results and 

 application are concerned ; but much, if not most, of the data should be' retained 

 in the station's unprinted records. 



