New Yoke Agricultural Experiment Station. 
45 
committee management and through the annual change in the personnel 
of the board. The director, however, should outline his policy to 
harmonize with the views of the board or else resign, but there should 
be no half-way or compromise discordancies of view between the board 
and the director. 
The policy which a station should pursue must vary somewhat 
according to the conditions it has to meet, but this may be safely said, 
that in general the efforts should be to eliminate local results from 
those which are general in their character, and to recognize that progress 
must come through work which has a permanent value. A large por- 
tion of the work which is done upon the station grounds, and with the 
regular working force of the station, could better be done elsewhere, 
and, indeed, cannot be done well when confined to one locality. Thus, 
work in pomology, which deals with varieties and variety adapta- 
tions, when confined to a specimen orchard, must in many cases be 
delusive, and in all cases cannot give the desired certainty of conclu- 
sion. This character of work can best be accomplished by the station 
maintaining a trained pomologist, whose duties shall involve the study- 
ing, through travel, of fruits as grown upon a large scale in nurseries, 
orchards or gardens, and who would have the privilege of referring 
any desired chemical or botanical questions which might arise to the 
station officials for study and elucidation. We may make like remarks 
concerning the study of breeds and the study of dairies. An expert, 
whose time should be spent in visiting herds or dairies and in making 
practical studies upon the spot, and whose conclusions should receive 
further study and investigation, where required, by the permanent 
station officials, would secure results which certainly would be reliable, 
and wh ich might be of great importance. These two illustrations, 
which might be extended further, will serve to impress my conclusion 
that work at the station has been in the past entirely too local in its 
character, and that a policy which seeks for results and which ignores 
the farm, town, county or State lines, would be productive of larger 
benefits than have hitherto accrued to our work. 
I think the Smithsonian plan of organization and work has not had 
the influence upon other organizations that its merits deserve. I would 
see our experiment station placed upon the Smithsonian footing, 
possessing a central band of workers to be engaged in independent 
research and the duties of revision and the putting out of distinct 
problems to selected individuals, those best capable of taking the work, 
regardless of their locality and residence. I would see criticism made 
rather upon the results obtained than upon the methods adopted. I 
desire to see that public and central support which would justify the 
