In the past, Agricultural Experiment Stations have routinely evaluated new herbicides and other pesticides to determine their potential place in solving local agricultural problems. This type of work has become very controversial in recent years. Many universities will no longer work with herbicides during the evaluation stages on field problems and limit most or all of their herbicide research to more basic laboratory oriented programs. Since Oregon State University has a major project on the evaluation of new herbicides, there must be some justification for this in a university's work program. An effort will be made to point out some of the reasons for the Oregon State University program and try to analyze the pros and cons of this topic from the university standpoint.

Several steps are possible in testing herbicides, or what might be called steps in testing during the herbicide development period. The first step will be called early evaluation of new products. The advantages for a university becoming involved in this early phase testing work is that it builds a close working relationship with the chemical industry. This working relationship provides support for students, which in itself is important to the future of the weed control field. There is deep concern over the small number of students that are being trained in weed control, particularly those that are agriculturally oriented. If some change is not made in the lack of sufficient numbers of trained students from universities, a serious crisis in both industry and university staffing will result.