70 
technical, and there is no reason why it should he obscure or incomprehensihle to 
any common mind, and an Agassiz would make it so plain that a 'fool need not err 
therein/" 
The farmer next takes up the discussion : 
"To answer your question, one may write out a lengthy essay or small volume, or 
answer it in a few hrief lines. The latter, I have no doubt, you prefer, and it is the 
only one I have the time or ability to use, for I must jot down my ideas as they 
happen to ' turn up.' First. To publish such information as may have been obtained 
at the station which may be of value to the public. Second. It may he its mission 
to obtain information beyond the technical limits of the station. Under my second 
clause of the first proposition, much may be said. I should make it very literal, 
every statement very clear and concise. Conclusions and summaries find much favor 
while the processes through or by which results are obtained are received with 
indifference. Let me illustrate this by calling attention to the condensed reports 
contained in the Experiment Station Record. And right here a 'culling out' of what- 
ever is of special value in that Record to your constituency might make a valuable 
bulletin. Again, I would not spend much money once a month in publishing the 
fact of which way the wind blew thirty days previous, or once a month stating the 
analysis of fertilizers whose commercial value hardly varies in a year. Again, never 
use a technical term, or any term that is not, or will not, be understood by the com- 
mon farmer. Such terms are probably necessary. An important mission— very, in 
my judgment — would be to issue a bulletin periodically that would explain in sim- 
plest form, terms used to give results of analysis, such as 'protein/ 'cellulose/ 'crude 
cellulose/ 'crude fat/ 'nitrogen/ 'nitrogen-free extract/ and so on through the list, 
making a dictionary or text-book explaining these terms, that not one farmer in a 
thousand could explain to you or me, although by statements, we 'catch on' to some 
conclusions. Here is a mission of education to make your bulletins more valuable. 
"Without treating my first further either negatively or otherwise, I refer to my 
second proposition. You are supposed to obtain information at your experiment 
station from your land, animals, and laboratory. It seems to me that no statute 
prohibits you from obtaining facts, information, or conclusions from whatever source 
you can obtain them. In my judgment, it may be a legitimate mission of your bul- 
letin to have those of inquiry. Let mo suppose you want evidence to form conclu- 
sions as to any line of farm industry — cattle, we will suppose. Take the assessor's 
report of any given town ; at a moment's glance you will notice those most engaged 
in that line. Send your bulletin of inquiry to them. Your question, I think, is very 
legitimate, but I fear I have not enlightened you on the subject. The more I think 
of it, the mbre its importance appears." 
Last of all, the student speaks: 
"You ask, Should the bulletins be technical or popular, or both? I think they 
should be both. That is, there should be a popular form for farmers, and also a tech- 
nical form in order to preserve the scientific work of the station and for limited dis- 
tribution. The bulletins should be simple and yet instructive. There should be no 
use of technical terms when a plain one will express it much better ; no use of Latin 
names to describe ordinary wheat, and a hog should be called a hog rather than by 
its Roman synonym. It may be well to use these scientific designations in a scien- 
tific report, and yet I. think even in these simple language is preferable if it describes 
the subject in hand. To always use the Latin names and scientific phrases even in 
scientific works is an affectation and a sort of humbuggery belonging, if you please, 
to the mediaeval times, when the monks and the alchemists used to hoodwink the 
plain people with phrases which they could not understand. I believe, however, in 
scientific statements of facts when we have facts to be recorded, but there should be 
no bulletins published, popular or scientific, until we have got something to say. 
This publishing a monthly bulletin is a lot of cheap business not worthy of a Massa- 
chusetts institution or honest men. T do not think our bulletins need necessarily be 
confined to the work which we do, but may embody the results, especially the pop- 
