PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE 
 
 BY EDUCATION A^D GOYERTSTMENT AID. 
 
 PROF. EUGENE W. ELLaARD, 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 [Reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly for April and May, 1882.] 
 
PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE BY EDUCATION AND GOVERN- 
 MENT AID. 
 
 I. 
 
 The rapid progress of American in- 
 dustries within the last decade, espe- 
 cially since financial uncertainties have 
 ceased to disturb the political atmos- 
 phere, is a matter of common and al- 
 most trite remark and congratulation ; 
 and at the present moment the process 
 of development seems likely to continue 
 with a geometrical ratio of increase, 
 both as regards manufactures and agri- 
 culture. The key-note originally sound- 
 ed by the promoters of the Pacific rail- 
 roads, " Attack the wilderness with rail- 
 roads," has awakened gigantic echoes 
 from the Dominion of Canada to JMex- 
 ico. But the quality of the tone has 
 somewhat changed. Mining, the orig- 
 inal motive, however important still, is 
 being overshadowed by the fundamen- 
 tal industry, agriculture, even in the 
 land of gold itself, and in the heart of 
 the " great American desert," which 
 seems destined to become in its turn, 
 for a time, the granary of the world. 
 American commerce has carried coal to 
 Newcastle, cutlery to Shefiield, haras to 
 Westphalia, and grain to Russia. Our 
 exports of breadstuffs, and even of the 
 perishable article of fresh meats, are 
 making such formidable competition for 
 the European farmer that he would 
 fain invoke against it the reenactment 
 of protective tariffs, for whose repeal 
 he gave the casting vote in the struggle 
 with which the name and fame of Cob- 
 den are linked. 
 
 With the development and prosperity 
 of the fundamental industry, all other 
 Industries flourish. The prosperous 
 farmer is enabled to supply himself not 
 only with the necessaries of life, but 
 also with luxuries, and to pay the trib- 
 ute exacted from him by a protective 
 
 tariff on such primarily important ar- 
 ticles as iron and steel ; thereby giv- 
 ing extraordinary encouragement to the 
 home manufacture of that and of oth- 
 er articles, and thus again indirectly 
 causing fearful competition to the Eu- 
 ropean manufacturer. Stinted in wages, 
 or thrown out of employment altogeth- 
 er, the more ambitious portion of Euro- 
 pean laborers comes to swell the tide 
 of immigration, as well as, in a fast in- 
 creasing ratio, the industrial wave that 
 sweeps westward, regardless alike of 
 the terrors of " the desert," the rugged 
 mountains, and the hostile Indian. 
 
 It is pertinent to inquire what the 
 United States government has done and 
 is doing toward the conservation, en- 
 couragement, and practical promotion 
 of this stupendous interest, which in- 
 volves, as direct producers, over one 
 half of the population of the United 
 States, and, indirectly, the essential con- 
 ditions of the prosperity of the whole. 
 The manufacturing and other industries 
 have been assiduously fostered by jjro- 
 tective tariffs, often far beyond the time 
 when any such assistance was really 
 needed, save for the enrichment of in- 
 dividuals ; and such duties have often 
 pressed heavily upon the interests of 
 agriculture. The prosperity and prog- 
 ress of the latter industry, notwithstand- 
 ing such disadvantages, were held to 
 prove the needlessness of government 
 aid ; and for the first eighty-six years 
 of the republic, almost the only direct 
 recognition agriculture received at the 
 hands of the general government was 
 embodied in small subdivisions of the 
 patent-office building and reports, and 
 ill very general and usually ill-observed 
 instructions to government surveyors to 
 note the agricultural capabilities of the 
 regions surveyed by them. But most of 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 these notes remained, as a rule, pigeon- 
 holed in the general land office. 
 
 Most prominent among the factors 
 that have contributed toward the ex- 
 traordinary development and prosperity 
 of agriculture in the United States is, 
 unquestionably, the great native fertil- 
 ity of soils, as yet unexhausted in the 
 newer States and Territories, which are 
 thus enabled to pour out upon the East 
 and upon Europe the accumulated soil 
 treasures of many ages. That these 
 cannot hold out forever, or even for 
 many years to come, is an inexorable law 
 of nature ; and the steady diminution 
 of production per acre in the States 
 east of the Mississippi River, resulting 
 in their increasing inability to compete 
 in the growing of cereals with the new- 
 er States, has long given warning that 
 the experience of the Old World is be- 
 ing repeated on the new continent, and 
 that the old and ever - recurring ques- 
 i/ion is upon us of maintaining profita- 
 ble productiveness by means of system- 
 atic culture and returns to the soil. 
 
 Whether this question shall be al- 
 lowed to assume the asjiect of the men- 
 ace that annually confronts the Euro- 
 pean agriculturist, — " No manure, no 
 crops," — or whether an ounce of intelli- 
 gent prevention shall forestall the heavy 
 burdens that will otherwise rest upon 
 the coming generation and its industries, 
 is the issue that must largely be deter- 
 mined by enlightened government ac- 
 tion, in the face of the already inveter- 
 ate bad habits of the vast majority of 
 American farniers, that are, as usual, 
 promptly adopted by the European im- 
 migrant. Tho ravaging of the virgin 
 soils by heavy cropping without change, 
 or even the slightest attempt at returns, 
 followed by the " turning-out " of the 
 *' tired " xand, and, too often, by the 
 washing away of the surface soil from 
 the h.".rd plow-sole formed by shallow 
 tilla;,e, not uncommonly resulting in 
 tli<j definitive ruin of the land for agri- 
 cultural purposes, is repeated more or 
 
 less in every newly settled region. De- 
 serted homesteads, and melancholy old 
 fields scarred with gullies, mar the face 
 of the land in the rear of the pioneer 
 farmer, and impose upon his steadier 
 successor a heavy tax, in the way of rec- 
 lamation, on soils that, if rationally cul- 
 tivated, would not have felt the need of 
 manure for scores of years. For want 
 of the most rudimentary knowledge of 
 agricultural facts and principles, the 
 planters of the South have for three 
 quarters of a century wasted nine crops 
 of cotton for every one made, by fail- 
 ing to utilize the chief product of their 
 fields — cotton seed — for returns to the 
 soil, which needs but little more to main- 
 tain its full productiveness forever. 
 Such a crying evil as this would hardly 
 have been allowed to exist so long in 
 any country less averse to the least sem- 
 blance of paternal government, without 
 something more than the faint warninsrs 
 and remonstrances uttered from time to 
 time in the periodical press, or in gov- 
 ernment documents. The great perfec- 
 tion attained by agricultural implements 
 for large-scale culture, under the hands 
 of American inventive skill, serves but 
 to add to the rapidity with which the 
 process of soil devastation is carried 
 forward into new fields. 
 
 Apart from this primary and most 
 serious problem, there are thousands of 
 other questions, of less general impor- 
 tance but locally of equal interest, that 
 confront the farmer, especially in the 
 newer States, surrounded as he is by 
 new conditions of soil and climate, with 
 which he does not know how to deal, 
 save in so far as his previous experience 
 and good judgment may aid him. The 
 farming of the first generation is usual- 
 ly a series of experiments, in which the 
 native fertility of the soil is the saving 
 clause between profit and loss. As the 
 soil becomes less thrifty by wear, the 
 second and third generations continue 
 the course of experimenting as to crops 
 and methods of culture giving the high 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 est profit under the local circumstances. 
 Few, however, realize the best results 
 that could be achieved with the means 
 at command, and many are the disheart- 
 ening failures, under the pressure of 
 which the farmer abandons his " im- 
 provements," in search of the fabled 
 " soil that never gives out," supposed to 
 exist somewhere to westward. If the 
 conditions of the best success, as ascer- 
 tained by systematic investigation, had 
 but been pointed out from the begin- 
 ning, or if even the actual experience of 
 the prosperous few had promptly been 
 made generally known, how different 
 would have been the history of agricul- 
 ture in most of the States west of the 
 Allegheny Mountains ! If the measure 
 of success has been great even under 
 the tentative, unsystematic practice pre- 
 vailing thus far, how much greater 
 might it have been had the light of sys- 
 tematic scientific research been made 
 to precede the industrial army, instead 
 of following slowly in its rear, to show 
 the causes of the results that have fol- 
 lowed the blind experimenting of the 
 vanguard ! The work, however, is one 
 that lies beyond the power of young 
 communities or even States. Of late, 
 one of the great railroad corporations ^ 
 has thought it worth while to institute 
 an agricultural survey of the regions 
 through which its lines are to pass. But 
 it seems peculiarly the province of the 
 general government to take measures 
 tending to remedy the omissions of the 
 past, and to provide against their recur- 
 rence in the future. 
 
 The year 1862 will in this connection 
 remain memorable in the history of 
 American agriculture. The subject of 
 a donation of public lands for the en- 
 dowment of industrial colleges had been 
 repeatedly mooted, and in 1857 a bill to 
 that effect was brought before Congress 
 by Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. But in the 
 violence of political agitation at that 
 I The Northern Pacific. 
 
 time, and on account of the especial op- 
 position to the exercise of power by the 
 Federal government, it did not become 
 a law. The subsequent events, leading 
 to the civil war, created a strong pop- 
 ular tendency in the reverse direction, 
 in the Northern States ; and this, con- 
 currently with the consciousness of the 
 need of popular support on the part of 
 the government, resulted in the passage 
 by Congress, and approval by the pres- 
 ident, of two measures most important 
 to agriculture : the creation of the De- 
 partment of Agriculture as an independ- 
 ent bureau, and the donation to the 
 States of thirty thousand acres of public 
 lands for each representative, for the 
 endowment, in each, of " at least one 
 college, where the leading object shall 
 be, without excluding other scientific 
 and classical studies, and including mil- 
 itary tactics, to teach such branches of 
 learning as are related to agriculture 
 and the mechanic arts, in such manner 
 as the legislatures of the States may 
 respectively prescribe, in order to pro- 
 mote the liberal and practical education 
 of the industrial classes in the several 
 pursuits and professions in life." 
 
 This beneficent act to promote the arts 
 of peace, again championed chiefly by 
 Mr. Morrill, and passed almost within 
 hearing of hostile cannon, is entitled, 
 whether by oversight or with a view to 
 the conciliation of popular sentiment, 
 " A bill for the benefit of agricultural 
 colleges," — a title which does not do 
 justice to its broad and liberal scope, 
 and wise deference to the varied require- 
 ments of the different portions of the 
 immense empire covered by its action. 
 As a matter of fact, the impression con- 
 veyed in that title has in a great meas- 
 ure remained fixed in the popular mind 
 and parlance, it being usually designated 
 as " the agricultural college act : " and 
 this has given rise to not a few misap- 
 prehensions and acrimonious discussions 
 that a candid consideration of the act 
 itself would have rendered superfluous. 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 It was natural and proper that in the 
 States in which agriculture was the over- 
 shadowing interest it should have taken 
 precedence, both in point of time and 
 allotment of funds, of the " mechanic 
 arts ; " and it was equally natural that 
 in manufacturing States the latter should 
 have claimed the lion's share, for the 
 time being. The subdivision of the fund 
 into two portions, applied to the estab- 
 lishment or farther endowment of sep- 
 arate institutions representing the two 
 greg(t industrial branches, has been pre- 
 ferred by two States, Massachusetts and 
 Pennsylvania ; while in the rest, both 
 have remained united within one insti- 
 tution, newly established or preexisting. 
 It is not proposed to discuss in this pa- 
 per the topic of instruction in the me- 
 chanic arts, but to deal first with that 
 portion of the subject in which agricul- 
 ture is directly concerned, and by the 
 light of the experience had to consider 
 wliat are and should be the functions of 
 the United States Department of Agri- 
 cultui'e. 
 
 One of the most salutary effects pro- 
 duced by the Morrill act was the lively 
 interest and discussion respecting the 
 proper organization of the new institu- 
 tions to be formed under it, which arose 
 wherever the law was carried into effect. 
 A compact and impartial history of 
 these first efforts, failures and successes, 
 would be of great interest to educators, 
 but is yet to be written : and it is per- 
 haps too soon to attempt the task, since 
 the actual outcome of the several plans 
 represented in the different States is still 
 subject to great differences of opinion. 
 
 As usual, two extremes have disputed 
 precedence with each other, and, as usu- 
 al, the final and best result will doubt- 
 less be found between them. On the 
 one hand, it has been contended by 
 many of those representing the colleges 
 and universities that both the letter and 
 .ntent of the law would be best carried 
 3ut, and the greatest benefits conferred 
 
 upon the classes named in the act, by 
 the establishment of schools of science 
 in connection with the older institutions, 
 already possessed of a large part of the 
 personnel and appliances needful for 
 teaching " such branches of learning as 
 are related to agriculture and the me- 
 chanic arts, without excluding other sci- 
 entific and classical studies." These ap- 
 peared to require only the additional en- 
 dowment in order to perform fully and 
 advantageously the desired functions, 
 and this mode of utilizing the endow- 
 ments seemed the more expedient, be- 
 cause the funds realized from the con- 
 gressional donation were in most cases 
 obviously inadequate for the maintenance 
 of institutions embracing all the educa- 
 tional branches called for by the act. 
 Since the new institutions could not be 
 numerous or extensive enough to edu- 
 cate the industrial millions, it was ar- 
 gued that they must aim first of all to 
 educate the leaders of progress, to whom 
 the most thorough liberal as well as sci- 
 entific training ought to be given. 
 
 On the other hand, it was contended, 
 chiefly by the industrial classes them- 
 selves, that such a connection would be 
 likely to deprive them of the benefits of 
 the act especially intended to be con- 
 feri'ed upon them, and, while the '• lib- 
 eral " part of the education would doubt- 
 less be fully attended to by the older 
 colleges thus additionally endowed, the 
 " practical " would be either left out 
 or restricted within narrow limits ; that, 
 in fact, the whole intent of the act was 
 obviously in the latter direction; and 
 that the object would be best served by 
 the establishment of new institutions, 
 separate and, if possible, remote from 
 the influence of the traditional college, 
 where " agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts " were looked down upon as of in- 
 ferior degree and dignity, and where 
 those devoting themselves to their pur- 
 suit would be subjected to the sneers of 
 their classical and literary fellow-stu- 
 dents. Coupled with these views was, 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 usually, a demand for the enforcement 
 of some manual labor upon the pupils, 
 with the object of creating, or main- 
 taining, a habit of work, and imparting 
 * that training of the hand and of the 
 eye that is so essential to success in in- 
 dustrial pursuits, and which has beeu so 
 conspicuously neglected in the tradition- 
 al curriculum of education. Moreover, 
 it was thought that these institutions 
 ought to be and could be so constituted 
 that " every farmer's son " could profit 
 by their instruction. That is, they con- 
 tended that the education of the millions, 
 and not that of the leaders only, was to 
 be compassed under the Morrill act. 
 
 The measure of truth contained in 
 each of these contradictory ^propositions 
 has rendered their respective advocates 
 singularly tenacious of their respective 
 views, and the result has been the adop- 
 tion, in different States, of either plan, 
 according to the predominant elements 
 of the population ; or, in some cases, ac- 
 cording to the accident of finding some 
 vigorous and capable hand to carry either 
 into effect, — the first success varying 
 accordingly. 
 
 It is not the object of this paper to 
 discuss these experiments and experi- 
 ences in detail or exhaustively. It is 
 proposed to trace the general process of 
 evolution, as exemplified now by one 
 and then by another of the American 
 colleges, whether established prior to, or 
 in pursuance of, the Morrill act of do- 
 nation. No single one, perhaps, could 
 as yet be found to illustrate in its his- 
 tory, in a striking manner, all the sev- 
 eral phases ; but the attentive observer 
 will be able to sup()ly the examples, 
 and will, it is thought, find the picture 
 a truthful one. 
 
 So far as the colleges organized on 
 what may be called the popular plan are 
 concerned, their establishment was in 
 most cases accompanied or followed by 
 an outburst of popular enthusiasm, in 
 jonsequeuce of which their ranks were 
 
 quickly filled, even to overflowing, thus 
 giviug to their advocates a basis for 
 claiming an overwhelming success. It 
 was proclaimed that at last the sons of 
 the industrial classes had been given the 
 opportunity for a sound " labor educa- 
 tion," fitting them at once for their vo- 
 cation, instead of simply preparing them 
 to acquire it for themselves by weary 
 experience. The workshop and the 
 farm had replaced the lecture-room, in 
 which pupils were as a rule unfitted for 
 industrial pursuits, by having other ideas 
 " put into their heads," so that they rare- 
 ly returned to the farm. 
 
 The radical error of the position as- 
 sumed by the advocates of the " popu- 
 lar plan " was that, in their eagerness 
 to assert the high position which agri- 
 culture ought to hold in the estimation 
 of mankind, they frequently overshot 
 the mark, so as effectually to assert its 
 lowliness, its inability to bear compari- 
 son with other pursuits by the light of a 
 liberal education. In their anxiety to 
 protect the agricultural student from 
 possible snobbish sneers, arising from 
 the antiquated idea that all manual la- 
 bor is beneath the dignity of educated 
 men, they proposed to make that idea 
 a determining factor in the choice of 
 the location, connection, and organiza- 
 tion of the new schools, by withdrawing 
 them as much as possible from contact 
 with the existing centres of high cul- 
 ture. In this dignified seclusion they 
 hoped to convince the pupils, uncontra- 
 dicted, of the dignity of labor, — sur- 
 rounding them with a dense " agricul- 
 tural atmosphere," through which n-o 
 other rays should penetrate. It was 
 even proclaimed in an agricultural con- 
 vention that " muscle must be ])\\t on 
 a level with brain," and the sentiment 
 was actually greeted with applause at 
 first, though subsequently followed by 
 energetic protest against such stultifica- 
 tion of the cause of agriculture. This 
 grave error, so diametrically opposed to 
 the letter and spirit of the Morrill act, 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 has served long and well to sharpen the 
 arrows of satire agamst the agricultural 
 colleges, and to deter ambitious young 
 men from entering them, even where a 
 different system prevailed. 
 
 The institutions organized as scientific 
 schools, and, as a natural consequence, 
 in connection with preexisting colleges 
 or universities, by a simple amplifica- 
 tion of the scope of scientific instruc- 
 tion, found themselves quite unembar- 
 rassed by numbers, even where there 
 was a sincere desire to fulfill in every 
 respect the intent of the act ; which, un- 
 fortunately, was not always the case, 
 thus creating much ill feeling, acrimoni- 
 ous discussions, and unwise legislation. 
 To speak plainly, some of these institu- 
 tions had to wait a year or two for the 
 first student in the special departments ; 
 not counting a few cautious nibbles on 
 the part of raw country lads, who need- 
 ed but a short time to find out that 
 their place was not there, the prepara- 
 tion obtainable in the country gram- 
 mar school being quite inadequate to en- 
 able them to pursue understandingly the 
 courses of instruction offered. There 
 followed some years of unexciting tete- 
 a-tetes of agricultural instructors with 
 single students, or with the minimum 
 number usually supposed to constitute a 
 class ; thus giving the teachers abun- 
 dant leisure to reflect on the causes of 
 this failure to apjDreciate the advantages 
 offered. It may not be irrelevant to 
 observe that the present paper owes its 
 origin, in part, to a similar opportunity 
 for reflection, and subsequent action 
 thereon. 
 
 The results of these cogitations were 
 very various, all perforce agreeing in 
 the conclusion that there was little de- 
 mand for agricultural education of the 
 character offered, namely, that which is 
 adapted to the training up of agricul- 
 tural experts, — the Oekonumen of Ger- 
 many. This fact was painfully appar- 
 ent from the beginning, in the great, 
 and in many cases for years insuffer- 
 
 able, diflJiculty of finding well-qualified 
 teachers of agricultural science for the 
 new institutions. Men had to be trained, 
 or had to train themselves, especially 
 for that purpose, as quickly as might 
 be ; and many have been the curious 
 demonstrations of the difference be- 
 tween merely knowing how to do a 
 thing by rote and the ability to teach 
 students the why and wherefore. This 
 was especially the case in the agricul- 
 tural schools established on the popular 
 plan, where " plain, practical farmers " 
 were placed in charge of classes of boys 
 who had grown up on farms, and who 
 soon found that they were learning lit- 
 tle beyond a somewhat improved handi- 
 craft, at the expense of half their time 
 spent in field labor, differing but slight- 
 ly from that to which they had been in- 
 ured from childhood, on the home farm. 
 
 This, in fact, proved the turning-point 
 in the popularity of the " labor " schools. 
 After the first flush of enthusiasm, par- 
 ents as well as sons began to gauge the 
 benefits received under the system which 
 gave half the pupils' time, or more, to 
 manual labor, conveying little or noth- 
 ing new after a few weeks' practice, 
 and therefore of no educational value. 
 It soon began to be said that the pu- 
 pils were made to work for the profit 
 of the college, with occasionally the ad- 
 ditional intimation that they had to la- 
 bor to " maintain a lot of professors in 
 idleness," instead of getting an educa- 
 tion, and that tlie parents might as well 
 take them home, and get the benefit of 
 that service themselves. 
 
 To this the advocates of the labor 
 system replied that the farm work, in- 
 structive or not, was necessary to main- 
 tain the habit of manual labor ; that if 
 it were omitted the students would lose 
 that habit, have their minds and tastes 
 diverted from the farm, and would to a 
 great extent take to other occupations 
 in life. 
 
 The parents rejoined that they sent 
 their boys to the college to get an edu 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 cation, first of all ; to make them better 
 farmers, if farmers they chose to be, 
 but, above all, to be educated. 
 
 The first and early result of the con- 
 troversy was that the pupils were paid 
 wages, instead of working gratuitously, 
 as at first ; and another tidal-wave of 
 popularity set in. A farmer's boy was 
 now given an opportunity to pay his 
 way and get an education at the same 
 time, so that the poorest could avail 
 himself of the benefits of the college, 
 with little or no expense to his parents. 
 
 This phase of the process of develop- 
 ment has taken strong hold of the pop- 
 ular fancy, and is still among the first 
 ideas broached wherever the subject of 
 agricultural education is discussed among 
 the farming population. The theory 
 that after giving half or more of the day 
 to sedentary mental study the rest can 
 quite as beneficially be devoted to tak- 
 ing the needed physical exercise in the 
 guise of remunerative farm labor as in 
 the taking of walks, ball-playing, bicy- 
 cling, or other games producing no ob- 
 vious useful result, seems simple and in- 
 controvertible ; the more, as such things 
 have so often been done, and are con- 
 stantly being done, by young men who, 
 from obscurity, have risen to high posi- 
 tions. 
 
 The proposition involves, however, 
 several fallacies that seriously interfere 
 with the practical working of the plan, 
 which, as is frequently the case in social 
 problems, fails to take sufiiciently into 
 account that human nature of which 
 boys have so large a share, as well as 
 the fact that the average boy sent to the 
 colleges, though legally entitled to the 
 chance of becoming president of the 
 United States, is far from being made 
 of the sterner stuff from which Whit- 
 tingtons and Franklins are evolved. He 
 s to a great extent hopelessly obtuse 
 in respect to the amusing features of 
 plowing, hoeing, or weeding, and the 
 more so the greater his familiarity with 
 
 them at home. He is perversely dis- 
 posed to prefer a climb upon the most 
 rugged hills and the most fatiguing ath- 
 letic games, to the gentlest and most lu- 
 crative work in the cornfield or stable. 
 He may be persuaded or compelled to 
 conform his acts to the prescribed dis- 
 cipline ; but it may be gravely ques- 
 tioned whether, as a rule, such compul- 
 sion is conducive to a preference for the 
 pursuit of agriculture as a life occupa- 
 tion, more particularly in the case of 
 those boys whose natural ability would 
 make them most influential in the cause 
 of agricultural progress. 
 
 The gravest objection, however, is 
 one that remains unperceived, in a great 
 measure, even by those most immediate- 
 ly concerned, but which becomes glar- 
 ingly apparent to the teacher who is 
 not satisfied with merely going through 
 his class exercises, but scrutinizes the 
 results achieved when and after the pu- 
 pil leaves the institution. 
 
 The inadequacy of the time usually 
 given to the preparation for life in 
 American colleges is a standing griev- 
 ance, and one that all the ingenuity an- 
 nually brought to bear on the revision 
 of the curriculum by the college facul- 
 ties has not and cannot overcome. The 
 traditional four years' course cannot 
 possibly be made to hold all that is now 
 needed to be known by every well-edu- 
 cated man and woman, without omit- 
 ting or weakening to utter inanity too 
 much of the fundamental training need- 
 ful to proper and well-balanced use of 
 the mental faculties. To use a homely 
 phrase, it becomes more and more im- 
 possible to " put that quart into the pint 
 pot" that was amply large fifty years 
 ago. This is most especially true of 
 those courses embracing a considerable 
 proportion of studies in the natural 
 sciences, whose stupendous development 
 and important applications to every-day 
 life are so prominent a feature of our 
 time. 
 
 As neither students nor parents can 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 at present, as a rule, be persuaded to 
 prolong the term of education in col- 
 lege beyond the traditional four years, 
 it follows that the student has no time 
 to spare for anything that is not of 
 educational value, or can readily be 
 learned outside of the college. And it 
 follows equally that the time spent in 
 merely mechanical, uninstructive labor 
 in the aorricultural colleges detracts to 
 that extent from the opportunities of 
 the student, and stunts his education. 
 
 No pretense of nursing the " habit 
 of labor " can offset this grievous, and 
 in the course of the student's life usual- 
 ly irreparable injurj- ; no special plea 
 that, unless this course is pursued, his 
 mind may be turned away from agricul- 
 ture can stand for a moment. The 
 colleges intended for " the liberal and 
 practical education of the industrial 
 classes " cannot legitimately be trans- 
 formed into missionary establishments 
 for the conversion of youth unto agri- 
 cultural pursuits, by surrounding them 
 with an opaque agricultural atmosphere. 
 It is the duty of parents to afford their 
 children the ■ best opportunities within 
 their means for a judicious selection of 
 the life pursuit which shall be best 
 adapted to their natural talents and 
 tastes, and wise parents will rarely do 
 more than to assist them in the selection, 
 whether of a profession or of a com- 
 panion for life. Nor will they be dis- 
 posed to find fault with the schools o-r 
 colleges that have given their own chil- 
 dren the opportunity of recognizing the 
 vocation that will make them most suc- 
 cessful. It is not for the purpose of 
 learning how to plow and hoe, but why 
 to plow and hoe at all, and when and 
 where to do it to the best advantage, 
 that parents are willing to send their 
 sons to the colleges. In any case, the 
 " rubbing-iu " of the purely mechanical 
 part of the farmer's vocation is hardly 
 calculated to inspire a preference in that 
 direction, especially when the pupil is 
 conscious that his education is thereby 
 
 curtailed. He is quick to perceive that, 
 while " honest labor " dignifies the la- 
 borer because it is honest, it is not more 
 dignified or honest because unintelligent, 
 or such as can be performed as well by 
 a steam-engine or a horse. 
 
 It cannot be questioned that it is pre- 
 cisely this aspect of farming — its sup- 
 posed necessary association with hard, 
 unintelligent, merely mechanical labor, 
 unrelieved by any considerable use of 
 the intellect — that has in the past 
 caused it to be looked down upon as a 
 pursuit unworthy of educated and intel- 
 lectual men, and which still supports the 
 same view, to some extent. An aver- 
 sion to farming is often apparent among 
 those engaged in it, and leads to the 
 neglect of home life ; and home adorn- 
 ment while such expressions by par- 
 ents as " I don't want my childi-en to 
 drudge as I have done " go far towards 
 promoting the hegira of the most am- 
 bitious portion of the young rural pop- 
 ulation to the towns and cities, — to the 
 dry -goods counter, counting-house desk, 
 and other overstocked occupations, of 
 immensely inferior intellectual oppor- 
 tunities, but opening to them more or 
 less the possibility of considering them- 
 selves an integral part of a polite con> 
 munity, and of participating in those 
 recreations and amusements from which 
 the jihysical and social isolation of an 
 American farm would largely exclude 
 them. 
 
 Another, and perhaps the most in- 
 fluential, cause lies in the character of 
 elementary instruction, both at home 
 and in the common school. The very 
 existence of the latter has brought about 
 a feeling, on the part of the jiarents, 
 that they discharge their whole duty 
 to their children by making them at- 
 tend school ; so that home instruction 
 is almost laid aside, not only during the 
 school years proper, but also at the time 
 when the child's physical perceptions 
 are most acate and wide-awake, — the 
 time which the kindergarten system of 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 instruction utilizes so admirably in train- 
 ing and sharpening the naturally pre- 
 dominating interest in objective nature. 
 "When little or nothing is done in that 
 direction at home, and the child finds, 
 on reaching school, that the subjects so 
 closely connected with home and farm 
 life are almost totally neglected, the nat- 
 ural impression will be that they are 
 inferior in importance to writing, read- 
 ing, and arithmetic, and that the percep- 
 tion, knowledge, and handling of merely 
 physical objects is of little educational 
 OP intellectual value. To this repres- 
 sion of the child's perceptive faculties 
 by the time-honored scholastic system of 
 teaching must be ascribed a far greater 
 share in the lack of interest in agricul- 
 tural education than can be compensated 
 by any system of organization in the ag- 
 ricultural colleges. These can never do 
 their best work upon material whose 
 home and school education have com- 
 bined to turn the taste away from agri- 
 cultural pursuits. 
 
 Again, the rural village, to which the 
 European peasant's son looks back with 
 longing as the scene of his youth's en- 
 joyments, is as yet an unknown quantity 
 in the greater portion of the United 
 States, and especially so in the properly 
 agricultural regions of the Union, where 
 farms are large and the dwellings sep- 
 arated by long intervals. The county 
 towns and cross-roads hamlets, where 
 on Saturdays a portion of the rural pop- 
 ulation congregates around the black- 
 smith's shop, variety store, and corner 
 grocery, rarely offer any rational social 
 enjoyment, even in temperance commu- 
 nities ; while in the frontier States these 
 gatherings not uufrequently exemplify 
 Pandemonium. 
 
 The recognition of this comparative 
 barrenness of the farmer's intellectual 
 and social life in the large agricultural 
 States has found practical expression 
 in the " Grange " movement, which cou- 
 temjilates essentially cooperation for the 
 social, intellectual, and professional im- 
 
 provement of the members, and through 
 this the promotion of education, knowl- 
 edge, and emulation, thereby securing 
 the elevation of the farmer's calling and 
 also rendering it more profitable. 
 
 The distinctively social feature of 
 the order of Patrons of Husbandry, min- 
 istering to one of the greatest needs of 
 our rural population, has enabled it to 
 survive the probationary period and the 
 mistakes into which its leaders fell at 
 first in affiliating it with political par- 
 ties ; so that, after the first recoil, it is 
 reviving and steadily extending on a 
 more solid basis than before, and with 
 less prospect of reaction. Its declaration 
 of purposes and principles expresses 
 well and forcibly the foremost need of 
 American agriculture : not a holding- 
 down of the aspirations of youth to the 
 grindstone, by unremitting labor and a 
 stinted education, like the peasant class 
 of Europe ; but the ennobling of the 
 farmer's pursuit by the use of knowl- 
 edge, under the guidance of a trained 
 intellect, and the lightening of the bur- 
 den of labor thereby, both in directing 
 it into the most profitable channels, and 
 in taking from it the sensation as well 
 as the reproach of drudgery by render- 
 ing it intelligent. 
 
 Viewed from the stand-point of the 
 avowed programme of the Grange, the 
 labor-school plan is a step in the wrong 
 direction, unless that labor is kept strict- 
 ly within the limits of instruction, prop- 
 erly so called ; and although this incom 
 patibility has not always beeu recog 
 nized, and in many cases granges and 
 grange conventions have passed resolu- 
 tions expressing the reverse oi)inion, 
 yet the steady tendency of the colleges 
 has been toward the abandonment of all 
 uninstructive labor as a task incumbent 
 upon the students, while, nevertheless, 
 offering them every opportunity and in- 
 ducement to engage in such labor of 
 their own accoi'd, for exercise, recrea- 
 tion, or profit, as the case might be. 
 On the other hand, instrudive labor 
 
10 
 
 Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 such as is given the pupil for the sake 
 of illustrating and impressing ujaon him 
 the principles he is or has been study- 
 ing, can only exceptionally fulfill the 
 regular requirements of a well-conduct- 
 ed " model " farm, and is frequently as 
 little capable of being made profitable 
 to the college as is the laboratory work 
 of elementary students in chemistry. 
 It cannot, therefore, as a rule, be com- 
 pensated, a fact now distinctly set forth 
 in the I'egisters of several prominent ag- 
 ricultural colleges. 
 
 With the abandonment of obligatory 
 uninstructive labor, the project of mak- 
 ing ever}' student pay his college ex- 
 penses while getting his education also 
 falls to the ground. It is as incompat- 
 ible with his acquisition of a sound edu- 
 cation wiUiin the four-year limit as the 
 financial success of a farm conducted 
 with a view to the best general instruc- 
 tion is impossible. In other words, a 
 good education is necessarily expensive 
 and not lucrative, for the time being ; 
 and if the student spend half of his time 
 in making his expenses, he will have 
 to stint his education to a correspond- 
 ing extent, or he must give a longer to- 
 tal time to it. The latter course would 
 be the more needful, because in agricul- 
 tural practice, involving so many varied 
 and complex problems, a little rudiment- 
 ary knowledge, badly digested, is often 
 less serviceable than simple common 
 sense and the following of good exam- 
 ples. We have here only the reassertion, 
 on a different plane, of the principle of 
 conservation of force, which forbids us 
 to expect obtaining from a given amount 
 of virtual energy more than its mathe- 
 matical equivalent in work. 
 
 As to the exact amount of instructive 
 manual labor that may be profitably re- 
 quired of the agricultural student, opin- 
 ions and practice still differ considera- 
 bly ; but even here the obvious tendency 
 is towards restriction rather than in- 
 crease, in the older institutions origi- 
 
 nally organized on the labor plan. The 
 facility with which any one thoroughly 
 conversant with principles acquires the 
 mere manual dexterity or handicraft 
 forms a strong and increasingly appre- 
 ciated argument against extending that 
 portion of the too brief educational 
 course beyond the point at which the 
 pupil possesses a practical knowledge of 
 the conditions and details involved in 
 the successful pei'formance of an opera- 
 tion, leaving to a subsequent " jDractical 
 course," or to experience, the acquisi- 
 tion of actual dexterity. 
 
 This gradual abandonment of their 
 extreme position by the labor schools, 
 with an obvious approximation of their 
 fundamental ideas to those of the scien- 
 tific schools, has on the whole been fol- 
 lowed by a reduction of numbers, but 
 also by an unquestionable increase in 
 their efficiency toward accomplishing the 
 primary objects of the Morrill act. With 
 the falling-off of that portion of their 
 pupils that sought in them merely a 
 cheap, low-grade education, with little 
 reference to the pursuit or improvement 
 of agriculture, there came the need of 
 making a showing of quality as against 
 mere numbers, in order to maintain 
 their standing and claim to legislative 
 aid. It was broadly argued that it was 
 not the number of pupils on the college 
 rolls, and subsequently returned to the 
 plow, that would establish their claim to 
 utility and support, but their influence on 
 the progress of rational agriculture with- 
 in their sphere of action. Hence their 
 faculties were naturally pushed toward 
 exerting that impi'oving influence not 
 only upon the sons, but also upon the 
 parents themselves, by meeting them 
 at fairs, farmers' institutes, conventions, 
 and society meetings, and discussing 
 with them their needs, failures, and suc- 
 cesses. At the same time, the model 
 college farm began to be utilized for ex- 
 periments designed to determine ques- 
 tions of practical importance to agricul- 
 ture in the various States, — questions 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 11 
 
 with which, perhaps, the farmers them- 
 selves had wrestled in vain for want of 
 a full knowledge and command of the 
 controlling conditions. A few successes 
 in this direction at once created a stir 
 of interest, as it came to be understood 
 that the colleges might be made to con- 
 fer benefits not only upon the rising, but 
 also upon the existing generation; and 
 this, in turn, reacted upon the number 
 and quality of the students sent to the 
 colleges for the purpose of securing the 
 advantages that the knowledge taught 
 there might be expected to confer. 
 
 In other words, the popular colleges 
 gradually took upon themselves some of 
 the functions of experiment stations, in 
 investigating agricultural questions of at 
 least local, if not general, interest. And 
 here their action began to harmonize with 
 the scientific colleges. While waiting 
 for students to come, the latter had util- 
 ized their spare time in trying to awaken 
 the slumbering interest of the rural i^op- 
 ulation, and had found an effectual stim- 
 ulant for the purpose in showing the lat- 
 ter the advantages, of a most substan- 
 tial kind, that they might derive from 
 the systematic scientific investigation of 
 the mooted practical questions that were 
 being long and contradictorily debated 
 in their society meetings and agricultu- 
 ral periodicals. That is, they also began 
 to constitute themselves experiment sta- 
 tions, and to meet the farmer on his 
 own ground ; and the practical demon- 
 stration of the utility of the knowledge 
 they offered to dispense gradually began 
 to fill the aching void of the agricultu- 
 ral lecture-rooms. 
 
 If we summarize the conclusions le- 
 gitimately deducible from the experience 
 had in the establishment and working 
 of agricultural colleges in the United 
 States, as to the wants of the agricul- 
 tural population in respect to education, 
 they might be stated thus : — 
 
 (1.) Education corresponding to that 
 given in the peasant schools of Europe, 
 impressing upon the pupil the rules and 
 practice of agricultural operations by 
 means of constantly repeated manual 
 exercise, and at the same time giving 
 him a merely elementary general edu- 
 cation, proves unsatisfactory and unac- 
 ceptable here, where there is no peasant 
 class, whose pursuit, as a rule, passes 
 hereditarily from father to son. Those 
 who care for education at all desire 
 something more than mere routine train- 
 ing. 
 
 (2.) Neither is there a considerable 
 demand, at least consciously, for high sci- 
 entific training in agriculture, apart from 
 the need for teachers for the agricultu- 
 ral colleges, as is proved by the insig- 
 nificant attendance on the schools of ag- 
 ricultural science unprovided with model 
 or experimental farms. 
 
 (3.) The colleges of an intermediate 
 character, combining more or less of 
 actual farm labor with a fair amount of 
 higher instruction in the sciences, are 
 more or less numerously attended. A 
 large proportion of their pupils, how- 
 ever, fail to pursue farming as a calling 
 after leaving college, having resorted to 
 the latter as a cheap and convenient 
 high school rather than for professional 
 study. On the whole, their influence 
 in improving the methods of agriculture 
 in their respective States has not been 
 marked, except in the case of those which 
 have assumed to some extent the functions 
 of experiment stations, and as such have 
 rendered assistance in the solution of 
 practical agricultural problems. Other- 
 wise they are in most cases petted on 
 the one hand, and condemned as com- 
 paratively useless on the other, in pub- 
 lic discussions, in the newspaper press, 
 and in the legislatures, to which they 
 must periodically apply for pecuniary 
 aid to supplement their inadequate en- 
 dowments. 
 
n. 
 
 It would then seem that on the whole 
 the people of the United States are not 
 fully satisfied with anything that has 
 thus far been offered them in the shape 
 of agricultural education, and are slow 
 to avail themselves of the benefits of the 
 Morrill act. Yet the call for such edu- 
 cation has been sufficiently loud and 
 persistent to prove that there is a real 
 want, — that "the shoe pinches some- 
 where." May we not fairly conclude 
 that the exact spot upon which the press- 
 ure comes has not been generally iden- 
 tified, and hence well-advised action for 
 relief has not been taken ? 
 
 The blame for the indifferent suc- 
 cess that has attended their efforts has 
 heretofore been freely and even angrily 
 thrown upon the colleges by the vast 
 majority of those interested ; and the 
 most modest suggestion that perhaps 
 there is as yet not much real demand 
 for agricultural education, properly so 
 called, has met with derision, or denun- 
 ciation as an intolerable heresy. 
 
 Some of the causes leading to this 
 result, the roots of which lie deep in 
 our social and educational organization, 
 have already been alluded to. Remem- 
 bering these, let us consider upon what 
 basis a demand for professional agricul- 
 tural education must needs be expected 
 to rest. 
 
 It will be conceded that, unless the 
 " improvement " of agriculture means 
 making it more profitable, it will be of 
 little avail to preach and teach it. On 
 any other ground, the bulk of the farm- 
 ing population will place and ridicule it 
 under the head of fancy or book farm- 
 ing. It is obvious, then, that so long 
 as unexhausted soils and an abundance 
 of "fresh" land shall enable the. cultiva- 
 tor to obtain, even by the rudest tillage, 
 what he considers abundant returns, 
 his interest in agricultural improvement 
 and education will be but slight, or 
 more sentimental than practical. He 
 may even contend loudly for the rights 
 of farmers' sons to a professional ed- 
 ucation ; but he will fail to send his own 
 sons to get it where it is offered, and 
 employ them in taking in more fresh 
 land for the home farm, with the view 
 of settling each one on a " new place " 
 hereafter. The all but universal prev- 
 alence of this feeling and practice in the 
 newer States explains abundantly the 
 almost necessary failure of their agri- 
 cultural colleges to secure attendance 
 upon their properly professional courses, 
 no matter upon what system they may 
 be organized. 
 
 Conversely, it is easy to understand 
 the increasing interest in the teaching 
 and practice of improved agriculture as 
 we advance toward the older States, 
 whence the inevitable and rapidly swell- 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 13 
 
 ing wave of soil exhaustion sweeps 
 westward. As the " pinch of the shoe " 
 tightens, and the soil fails to respond to 
 the ruder touches of the plow, the farm- 
 er turns for relief to the experience of 
 the Old World, embodied in agricultural 
 science ; and when we reach the well- 
 worn soil of New England, we find on it 
 one of the oldest of the agricultural col- 
 leges of the United States, and perhaps 
 the most firmly established as such in 
 public esteem. Enthusiastically praised 
 and loudly condemned by turns, and buf- 
 feted as severely by the changing tide of 
 popular and legislative opinion as any of 
 her younger sisters, the Massachusetts 
 Agricultural College, guided by the hands 
 of able men and steadied by the exist- 
 ence of an indisputable and genuine de- 
 mand for the application of the higher 
 art and science of agriculture, has be- 
 come an influential factor in directing 
 agricultural practice in New England ; 
 but even here, especially so since it has 
 assumed tJie functions of cm experiment 
 station. The same cue has been vig- 
 orously taken up by Connecticut, and 
 the services rendered by the agricultural 
 department of Yale, under the manage- 
 ment of Johnson and Brewer, have not 
 only silenced the sneers often bestowed 
 upon the comparative minuteness of their 
 agricultural classes, but have given an 
 impulse that has extended far south- 
 ward and is bearing substantial fruits in 
 North Carolina. It is rather singular 
 that in this respect the great State of 
 New York has until within a few months 
 failed to respond adequately to the de- 
 mands of the time. While the names 
 of Caldwell, Law, and Arnold are fa- 
 miliar to the readers of agricultural jour- 
 nals in connection with much informa- 
 tion and some investigations of high 
 practical value, private experiment sta- 
 tions, established by public-spirited cit- 
 izens, have anticipated Cornell in the 
 practical recognition of the agricultural 
 experiment station as a necessary factor 
 in the promotion of rational agriculture. 
 
 The fruitful idea of the agricultural 
 experiment station, where questions of 
 local or general importance are system- 
 atically and thoroughly investigated un- 
 der all the lights that science can give, 
 and whence reliable results are directly 
 and promptly communicated to those in- 
 terested, touches the quick of the whole 
 problem of the agricultural colleges in 
 the United States. Their importance and 
 usefulness in Europe in the elaboration 
 and investigation of details is thrown in 
 the shade by that which they should 
 possess in a new country, where new 
 and untouched problems of the most 
 vital importance confront the farmer at 
 every turn, — problems whose solution, 
 even if covered by the general teach- 
 ings of agricultural science, lie far be- 
 yond the reach of any but the trained 
 investigator, provided with all the means 
 and appliances that modern science can 
 furnish. No agricultural college in the 
 new States will need to bid for a cheap 
 but hollow popularity by lowering its 
 functions to that of a peasant school, 
 to secure attendance of pupils, if it will 
 but undertake to prove the value of the 
 knowledge that may be acquired within 
 its halls, by taking up and determining 
 (not ex cathedra and dogmatically, but 
 by patient, conscientious, and practical 
 research) some of the many unsolved 
 questions that the farmers of the State 
 will bring before its instructors, so soon 
 as it is known that such things will be 
 attended to by them. The colleges will 
 thus be performing the most important 
 function within their power, under the 
 circumstances : that of educating the fa- 
 thers of the rising generation to a prop- 
 er estimate of the value of the knowl- 
 edge which is offered to their sons. In- 
 stead of the ceaseless wrangling as to 
 the value and merits of any particular 
 system of agricultural education, they 
 will find themselves accomplishing that 
 of whose value no one will raise a ques- 
 tion, and securing that respect and ap- 
 preciation of the use of intelligence and 
 
14 
 
 Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 science in agriculture which is not only 
 the expressed intent of the Morrill act 
 to foster, hut also the most efficacious 
 remedy for the indisposition of our youth 
 to engage in farming, and for the pre- 
 vention of the disastrous results threat- 
 ened by exhaustive culture. It would be 
 difficult to overestimate the importance 
 of the last-named object, alone ; but it 
 will never be accomplished by mere 
 ]ireaching, unaccompanied by demonstra- 
 tions, in the field itself, of the practical 
 and financial feasibility and advantage 
 of conservative and intensive culture, 
 and of the cheapest and most available 
 means for the maintenance or resuscita- 
 tion of fertility. 
 
 But since these means and methods 
 must vary with the climate, soils, and 
 products of each region, the college 
 should be in possession of accurate in- 
 formation on these points, or be able to 
 obtain it. This involves the carrying 
 out ,of agricultural surveys, properly so 
 called ; not merely geological and topo- 
 graphical surveys, with a few scattering 
 notes and vapid generalities concerning 
 the agricultural features and capabilities 
 of a State, but an intelligent and de- 
 tailed examination of each natural ag- 
 ricultural division or region, by persons 
 specially qualified as agricultural ex- 
 perts. 
 
 Provisions for the cai'rying out of 
 such investigations are on the statute- 
 books of most of the States, in connec- 
 tion with the acts for geological survevs ; 
 but few and far between are the exam- 
 ples of a bona fide execution of the in- 
 tent of this portion of these acts. The 
 most recondite researches in almost 
 every other department of science — ge- 
 ology, palaeontology, mineralogy, orni- 
 thology, botany, iclithyology, and even 
 couchology — have often had precedence 
 over the most needful and elementary 
 work bearing directly on agriculture ; and 
 the result has been painfully apparent 
 in the premature or periodic cuttiug-off 
 of state surveys, usually by the vote of 
 
 country members, who failed to see the 
 practical benefits of the expenditure in- 
 curred. It is a curious fact that in the 
 case of some States whose geological 
 structure is known even to minute de- 
 tails, he who would obtain a general 
 idea of their agricultural features must 
 laboriously collate scattered data con- 
 tained in state or United States reports, 
 newspaper paragraphs, the advertise- 
 ments of land companies, and informa- 
 tion obtained by correspondence. The 
 history of the work lately dolie in that 
 direction, under the auspices of the tenth 
 census, is pregnant with instruction on 
 this point. It is interesting to note, also, 
 that this neglect is in most cases direct- 
 ly traceable to the lack of agricultural 
 experts qualified to carry out such work ; 
 and the inference is plain that if fhe 
 agricultural colleges shall succeed in 
 supplying this want, they will do yeo- 
 man's service in the cause of agricultu- 
 ral progress. 
 
 It is, however, painfully apparent 
 that in most cases the means now at 
 the command of the agricultural col- 
 leges of States where the experiment 
 stations are most needed are quite inad- 
 equate to the full requirements of such 
 work, in addition to the maintenance of 
 a proper corps of teachers. As to agri- 
 cultural surveys, they are even more out 
 of the question, except in so far as the 
 instructors may gradually acquire some 
 knowledge of the State through person- 
 al visits, specimens, and correspondence, 
 — a tedious and slow method, especial- 
 ly in the larger States west of the Mis- 
 sissippi River. These States, moreover, 
 have become distrustful of the manage- 
 ment and agricultural utility of state 
 surveys, and are slow in giving adequate 
 pecuniary aid to them. It seems to be 
 a case in which enlightened intervention 
 and substantial aid from the general gov- 
 ernment would be especially well ap- 
 plied ; whether in the shape of addi- 
 tional endowments, or, in view of the 
 uncertain policy of the several States in 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 15 
 
 the matter, by the direct cooperation of 
 the United States Department of Agri- 
 culture with the several colleges. 
 
 The act establishing the Department 
 of Agriculture recites that its " general 
 design and duties shall be to acquire and 
 diffuse among the people of the United 
 States useful information on subjects 
 connected with agriculture, in the most 
 general and comprehensive sense of that 
 word, and to procure, propagate, and dis- 
 tribute among the people new and val- 
 uable seeds and plants." A succeeding 
 section specifies that such information 
 shall be obtained by the commissioner 
 " from books and correspondence, and 
 by practical and scientific experiments, 
 by the collection of statistics, and by 
 other appropriate means within his 
 power." 
 
 The very general wording of this act 
 leaves to the commissioner a wide dis- 
 cretion in respect to the manner in 
 which the intent of the law shall be car- 
 ried into effect, and probably was in- 
 tended to do so by its framers. In view 
 of this, it is a curious fact that no qual- 
 ifications as to special fitness on the 
 part of the incumbent are prescribed ; 
 the selection being left entirely to the 
 good judgment of the executive. 
 
 It can hardly be surprising that wide 
 differences of opinion as to the proper 
 scope and mode of action should have 
 arisen in respect to the Department of 
 Agriculture as well as the agricultural 
 colleges. Like the latter, that depart- 
 ment and those placed at its head have 
 been highly extolled on the one hand, 
 and roundly denounced for utter ineffi- 
 ciency and uselessness on the other. As 
 in the case of the colleges, the truth is 
 doubtless to be sought between the ex- 
 tremes. Much of what has been object- 
 ed to is and has been due to causes lying 
 outside of the department itself, in the 
 political atmosphere of the country, and 
 in the immense extent of the territory 
 over which the benefits of the depart- 
 
 ment were to be spread by the aid of 
 the small sums that have until quite re- 
 cently been at its command. The in- 
 evitable great dilution of the effects pro- 
 duced under the circumstances could 
 hardly fail to draw down upon the de- 
 partment the criticism of portions of 
 the country, or of certain special agri- 
 cultural industries, which for the time 
 being found themselves neglected. 
 
 If we examine in detail the records of 
 the department, as shown by the annual 
 and special reports issued by it, we find 
 that, so far as they go, the letter as well 
 as the spirit of the law creating it has 
 been fairly complied with. It is a com- 
 mon thing to hear these reports sneered 
 at, and to find them in the receptacles 
 usually provided for waste paper. But 
 it is generally true that the sneering 
 critics are those who would have little 
 use for agricultural reports of any kind, 
 and that the fault found is not as to 
 what is in the reports, but rather what 
 is not there ; that is, they do not hap- 
 pen to contain anything that applies 
 usefully to some particular region or cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 As regards the former class of ob- 
 jectors, its only raison d'etre is the un- 
 wise mode of distributing these and oth- 
 er government reports, chiefly by mem- 
 bers of Congress, to or through persons 
 whose only interest in them is the polit- 
 ical or personal capital they can make 
 thereby. Hence we find the plates of 
 cattle and other domestic or useful ani- 
 mals, plants, fruits, implements, etc., 
 which form part of the agricultural re- 
 ports, figuring extensively in the nurser- 
 ies and other recondite places of towns 
 and cities, while the paper-mill is often 
 a large-scale recipient of the dejjleted 
 volumes. " As valuable and interest- 
 ing as an agricultural report " is a say- 
 ins that finds its natural origin in the 
 wide distribution of these documents 
 among those having no real interest in 
 anything of the kind. It is sufficiently 
 obvious that the required remedy for 
 
16 
 
 Progress in Agriculture, 
 
 this state of things is a greater diligence 
 and conscientiousness on the part of 
 members of Congress in getting these, 
 as well as other government reports, di- 
 rectly into the hands of those for whom 
 they are intended, instead of using them 
 as lubricants for party machinery. 
 
 The class of objectors to the reports 
 because of their omissions is more for- 
 midable, because having a real griev- 
 ance resulting from the management of 
 the work of the department. It will be 
 useful, in considering this part of the 
 subject, to institute comparisons with 
 what other nations have done and are 
 doing in the same direction. And in so 
 doing it will be found that, while Euro- 
 pean reports are replete with accurate 
 and laborious investigations of details of 
 subjects long discussed, the American 
 reports are remarkable for dealing large- 
 ly with new and vitally interesting ques- 
 tions arising under the peculiar condi- 
 tions of our agriculture ; and are there- 
 fore read with interest by educated ag- 
 riculturists in Europe, who are far from 
 considering them, or the general work 
 of the agricultural department, as being 
 below the proper standard. Apart, then, 
 from some weak papers, such as will 
 occasionally find their way into much 
 more pretentious publications, we need 
 not be ashamed of the quality of the 
 matter that has entered into the agri- 
 cultural reports. 
 
 The adequacy of the department to 
 the needs of the overshadowing indus- 
 trial interest of the country is quite an- 
 other matter, and the weakest point of 
 the case. Its work has certainly not 
 met the expectations entertained by the 
 general public ; apd the causes assigned 
 have been as various as the remedies 
 proposed. Prominent among the rea- 
 sonable grounds for dissatisfaction has 
 been the management of the distribution 
 of seeds and plants, provided for by the 
 original act, that has absorbed a consid- 
 erable share of the appropriations made 
 
 by Congress, and for years has loaded 
 down the mails with thousands of pack- 
 ages of seeds that, even if " valuable," 
 were certainly not '^ new " in any sense 
 save that of having been grown the pre- 
 ceding season, and might have been 
 purchased by any one desiring them at 
 any country variety store, or at least of 
 seedsmen or nurserymen, in any por- 
 tion of the country to which they were 
 adapted. This practice competed with 
 legitimate trade, and alienated from the 
 support of and cooperation with the 
 department a professionally intelligent 
 and influential class of men throughout 
 the country. This overstepping of the 
 proper limits and intent of the law was 
 notoriously brought about under press- 
 ure from members of Congress who de- 
 sired the seeds, like the reports, to act 
 as lubricants toward reelection, or other 
 party advantages ; and were especially 
 strenuous on the subject of full sets of 
 flower-seeds, wherewith to conciliate 
 the good ofiices of the female portion 
 of their constituencies. Under the 
 terms of the appropriation bills, the com- 
 missioners were to a great extent help- 
 less in preventing this stultification of 
 the department, without incurring the 
 risk of a defeat or serious curtailment 
 of their general appropriation ; and 
 while this indiscriminate, injudicious, 
 and costly distribution has resulted in 
 making known and bringing into use a 
 not inconsiderable number of improved 
 or new culture plants, the benefits de- 
 rived therefrom thus far have been 
 largely offset by the ill-will, and in part 
 contempt, resulting from the transmis- 
 sion of seeds already in the general 
 market, or obviously unadapted to the 
 local climate. For in the impartial dis- 
 tribution claimed by members, cotton- 
 seed was sent to New England, and 
 Illinois-grown seed corn and California 
 wheat each went back to their native 
 climes. All the commissicners have 
 commented more or less upon the evils 
 of this system ; and the firm stand taken 
 
,Pr ogress in Agriculture. 
 
 17 
 
 by the late commissioner Le Due ou 
 this point secured for him the respect 
 even of those who found fault with the 
 somewhat " personal " character of his 
 administration. 
 
 Apart from this obvious and legiti- 
 mate cause of complaint, the objections 
 to the management of the department 
 have not been very definitely formulated, 
 and are rather to be inferred from the 
 propositions made for changes intended 
 to render it more efficient. 
 
 The reasonable claim that agricultural 
 interests should have a greater influence 
 in the councils of the nation than has 
 heretofore been the case has led to a 
 movement which contemplates the ele- 
 vation of the commissionership of agri- 
 culture into a cabinet office. It is sup- 
 posed by the advocates of this measure 
 that a position and vote in the cabinet 
 would insure a more serious and liberal 
 consideration of agricultural interests by 
 the government. But it is not clear 
 what jjractical object would be accom- 
 plished by this mere change of name, or 
 increase of conventional dignity. The 
 time when reforms could be accom- 
 ])lished by such easy means is past. It 
 is not supposable that an afflatus of 
 greater wisdom in the management of 
 his department would tliereby inflow 
 upon the new minister, ex officio ; and 
 it would be difficult to point, in the po- 
 litical history of the United States, to 
 any case in which agricultural interests 
 would have been sensibly benefited by 
 a cabinet vote. If it is the influence on 
 congressional legislation that is contem- 
 plated, a much shorter and more direct 
 way to reach the object is to send to 
 Congress men who shall truly represent 
 these interests ; and this it is entirely 
 within the power of farmers to do, with- 
 out asking any legislation or consent 
 of cabinet or Congress. It is the lack 
 of a sufficient number of such men in 
 the legislative halls, both state and na- 
 tional, that keeps the agricultural inter- 
 
 ests begging at the doors of the assem- 
 blies for the recognition and aid which 
 they ought to be able to command. 
 What more need be said on this point, 
 so far as Congress is concerned, than 
 that the senate committee on agriculture 
 of the forty-sixth Congress was composed 
 of five lawyers and two members who 
 might be classed as agriculturists ? — of 
 whom, however, only one remains in 
 the same committee of the forty-seventh 
 session. In the House, enough just men 
 have been found to form about one half 
 of the corresjionding committee. How 
 can favorable and intelligent legislation 
 on a special subject be expected of a 
 body thus one-sidedly constituted? 
 
 Forming, as they do, a sweeping ma- 
 jority of the entire ^iopulation, why is it 
 that the farmers' vote is steadily given 
 to men whose interests are not identified 
 with theirs, and whose personal knowl- 
 edge of the needs of the agricultural in- 
 dustry is limited to the most general 
 and often misty ideas ? The question 
 has frequently been asked by the writer, 
 as well as by others, when farmers com- 
 plained of want of representation in the 
 legislatures. The reply has not gener- 
 ally been clear or satisfactory, and it 
 has mostly been left to the questioner 
 to suggest that it is because farmers do 
 not often find among their own number 
 men sufficiently trained both in the sci- 
 ence and art of agriculture and in the 
 requirements of successful public life to 
 hold their own, and effectually maintain 
 the cause of their constituents, among 
 the trained men put into the same field 
 by other professions ; and because they 
 find that when they do send a " plain, 
 practical farmer " to Congress, or to the 
 legislature, his vote is usually the only 
 manner in which his influence is exert- 
 ed; if, indeed, amid the complexities of 
 amendments to amendments, he does 
 not unconsciously vote the wrong way. 
 
 What agriculture needs is not half so 
 much a vote in the cabinet as intelli- 
 gent, professionally well-trained repre- 
 
18 
 
 Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 sentatives in the legislative bodies ; meu 
 qualified to be leaders in the agricultural 
 as well as in the political field, by as 
 thorough and liberal an education as is 
 bestowed upon the representatives of 
 the other professions. If the agricul- 
 tural colleges should do no more than 
 to educate leaders of this kind, they 
 would render incalculable services to 
 the cause. 
 
 But if professional training is needed 
 for the representatives of agriculture in 
 the halls of Congress, what shall we say 
 of tlie qualifications that should be a 
 prerequisite for the office of Commission- 
 er of Agriculture ? It is not enough that 
 he should be an amiable gentleman and 
 friend of the President, who has been 
 more or less engaged in farming, and 
 has some pet ideas or experiments in 
 his mind. In or out of the cabinet, 
 that officer should combine a thorough 
 and comprehensive knowledge of the 
 science and art of agriculture with high 
 administrative capacity, and a wide ac- 
 quaintance with the varied peculiarities 
 and needs of the immense region that 
 constitutes his field of action. In other 
 words, he should be as thoroughly qual- 
 ified professional!}^ as the heads of the 
 coast and geodetic or geological sur- 
 veys ; and when once found to be so, and 
 satisfactory to the country, he should, 
 like the officers just referred to, hold 
 his office during " good behavior," and 
 without reference to political parties or 
 presidential terms. It is only under 
 such conditions that men possessing the 
 requisite qualifications will consent to 
 hold the office, and that the benefits of 
 an intelligent, well-considered policy, 
 consistently carried out, can be realized. 
 Under the system thus far prevailing, 
 the incumbents have as a rule been re- 
 moved from office just about the time 
 when they obtained a good insight into 
 the needs and proper management of 
 the department, and became qualified to 
 discharge their duties efficiently. 
 
 The definite organization of the De- 
 
 partment of Agriculture as a technical 
 bureau, withdrawn from ordinary polit- 
 ical changes, is of course incompatible 
 with the holding of a cabinet position 
 by its head ; since each President must 
 of necessity be free to choose his ad- 
 visers. By parity of reasoning it might 
 be conversely said that the holding of 
 a cabinet office by the head of any prop- 
 erly technical bureau is incompatible 
 with the efficiency of such department, 
 unless the actual management is sub- 
 stantially left to a competent and eflS- 
 cient subordinate. But in that case the 
 particular uses of a mere figure-head 
 are not apparent. The leader in fad 
 had better be also the responsible head. 
 
 It has farther been proposed to in- 
 crease the efficiency of the Department 
 of Agriculture by enlarging its scope so 
 as to embrace not only the properly 
 agricultural industries, but also all in- 
 dustrial branches cognate with it ; in- 
 cluding even the vitally important sub- 
 ject of transportation. As it is difficult 
 to see just where the intricate corre- 
 lations of industries would stop, under 
 such a point of view, this would prac- 
 tically amount to the establishment of 
 a " bureau of industries " of immense 
 range and cost, if so equipped as to 
 be effective ; whereas, if it were not 
 adequately organized and equipped, it 
 would almost inevitably so diffuse and 
 dilute the share given to agriculture 
 proper as seriously to impair the mod- 
 icum of efficiency and usefulness thus 
 far attained by the department. The 
 latter view was evidently the one taken 
 of the matter by a committee of the Na- 
 tional Grange that recently waited upon 
 the present commissioner, to enter a 
 protest against such project of enlarge- 
 ment ; while still, however, insisting on 
 the advancement of the commissioner- 
 ship to a cabinet office. The position 
 of the committee seems somewhat incon- 
 sistent ; for on the one hand they ex- 
 press the wish to see the department 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 19 
 
 kept as closely and technically agricul- 
 tural as possible, while on the other 
 they desire to see that done which would 
 render a strictly technical character al- 
 most impossible. Their action is proof 
 conclusive, however, that the practical 
 farmers agree with the scientific men of 
 the United States in considering that 
 there is ample matter within the lines 
 of action at present prescribed for the 
 Department of Agriculture ; and that 
 what is needed is that this wide field 
 should be more fully and efficiently 
 covered. 
 
 It will be proper to consider this field 
 somewhat in detail, both as to the por- 
 tions measurably covered heretofore, 
 and those which have been slighted or 
 omitted. 
 
 (1.) That portion of the work relating 
 to the distribution of seeds and plants 
 has already been commented on above. 
 It has been enormously overdone as to 
 quantity, improper selection, and indis- 
 criminate distribution, and should un- 
 dergo severe pruning in these respects, 
 leaving to private enterprise whatever 
 it is manifestly likely and adequate to 
 accomplish. On the other hand, the 
 department should give greatly increased 
 attention to the introduction from for- 
 eign countries of new species and vari- 
 eties of valuable culture plants adapted 
 to the varied conditions of the different 
 portions of the Union ; and to this end 
 it should be able to secure the assist- 
 ance of consular agents abroad, not as 
 a matter of individual good-will, but of 
 duty imposed by the acceptance of the 
 office, — if necessary, with such com- 
 pensation as may be needful and just. 
 
 In this, as in other matters, the de- 
 partment should invoke the active coop- 
 eration of the agricultural colleges, both 
 in respect to information as to local 
 wants and adaptations, and in efi;ecting 
 a judicious distribution of seeds and 
 plants. 
 
 (2.) In the collection of crop and com- 
 
 mercial statistics and monthly reports 
 of the condition of crops, the depart- 
 ment has done excellent work ; but the 
 geographical scope of that work needs 
 to be greatly extended, the number of 
 observers and reporters to be increased, 
 and, above all, the publication expedited 
 so that it shall not be behind private 
 enterprise in point of time and accuracy, 
 as has heretofore too often been the 
 case. If the government printing-office 
 cannot give precedence to these month- 
 ly reports, over other matter in hand, 
 they should be printed elsewhere. 
 
 (3.) In the publication of treatises on 
 agricultural subjects of immediate im- 
 portance, whether newly written, trans- 
 lated, or simply republished, the poli- 
 cy of the department and the results 
 achieved have been worthy of all praise, 
 placing within reach of those interested 
 the best information on the subjects 
 selected. That this selection has not 
 always been the best possible for the 
 time being may, in large part at least, 
 be ascribed to financial inability to com- 
 mand the services of the men needed 
 for the tasks. Here, also, a material 
 increase of activity is called for, so as 
 to place the latest results of experience 
 and investigation promptly within the 
 reach of farmers. An annual report of 
 agricultural progress everywhere, with 
 references to sources, should be made a 
 standing feature of the general report. 
 
 (4.) Of special work involving exper- 
 iment and investigation, that referring 
 to entomological subjects has been par- 
 ticularly useful and acceptable, espe- 
 cially when that portion accomplished 
 by the entomological commission during 
 its temporary separation from the de- 
 partment is counted in, as it should be. 
 This subject is of such vital importance 
 that a considerable increase of means 
 for its energetic prosecution is pressing- 
 ly called for. 
 
 (5.) The chemical work has been of a 
 somewhat miscellaneous character ; the 
 means at command for the purpose, be 
 
20 
 
 Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 iiig inadequate to the prosecution of ex- 
 teuded investigations, have been largely 
 given to the examination of specimens 
 sent to the department. Considering 
 the expenditure, however, a great deal 
 of useful VFork has been accomplished. 
 The investigations of sorghums and their 
 products, and of forage grasses, form val- 
 uable contributions to practical knowl- 
 edge. It is curious that examinations 
 of soils have been almost entirely ex- 
 cluded from the list of subjects, under 
 a somewhat antiquated impression of 
 the inutility of wasting one's efforts on 
 so complex and difficult a matter. This 
 is a particularly unfortunate omission in 
 the one country in the world where it is 
 possible to observe soils leisurely in their 
 original condition, as well as under the 
 progressive phases of culture without the 
 use of manures. It has remained for 
 the Census Office to take the initiative 
 in this important matter, also, in connec- 
 tion with the subject of cotton produc- 
 tion. Considering that the question of 
 soil exhaustion and maintenance of fer- 
 tility by the cheapest means is fast be- 
 coming the prominent one in the States 
 east of the Mississippi River, it can 
 hardly be doubtful that the examination 
 of this subject is among the most im- 
 portant services the agricultural depart- 
 ment could render to practical agricul- 
 ture. The problems to be solved nec- 
 essarily involve such extensive compar- 
 isons, systematically made over a wide 
 range of soils and climates, as to be out 
 of the reach of individual or even state 
 action, and peculiarly the province of 
 the national Department of Agriculture. 
 The prosecution of these and related re- 
 searches will of course necessitate great- 
 ly enlarged means for chemical and 
 physical work. 
 
 (6.) In connection with the more ac- 
 curate definition of the several agricul- 
 tural divisions of the country as to soils 
 and climates, the subject of forestry 
 should receive continual and close atten- 
 tion, both as regards the naturally ex- 
 
 isting forests and timber supply, and 
 their replacement and increase by tree- 
 planting in timberless regions. The re- 
 ports on the subject made by Mr. Hough, 
 however valuable, have but served, to 
 show the pressing need of farther work 
 in this direction ; and here, again, the 
 Census Office has taken a timely and 
 most important step forward, in the in- 
 vestigations placed under the charge of 
 Professor Sargent, of Harvard. 
 
 (7.) The second section of the act 
 creating the Department of Agriculture 
 specifies, among the means to be em- 
 ployed by the commissioner for the ac- 
 quisition of the useful knowledge to be 
 diffused by him, the making of " practi- 
 cal and scientific experiments ; " in other 
 words, it charges the department with 
 the usual and well-understood work of 
 an agricultui'al experiment station. It 
 is true that the means and aiDpliances 
 for carrying on such work on a scale 
 commensurate with the wide field to be 
 covered were exceedingly inadequate ; 
 but it is also true that, had those placed 
 in charge of this trust appreciated to its 
 full extent the importance and scope of 
 the task thus set before them, and res- 
 olutely and intelligently applied them- 
 selves to its fulfillment, an impulse might 
 have been given that would have been 
 felt throughout the land, and would 
 long ago have been echoed in every 
 State by the establishment of local sta- 
 tions, instead of the few that have slow- 
 ly struggled into existence under the 
 pressure of enlightened local leaders, 
 or as step-children of agricultural col- 
 leges. As in the case of the latter them- 
 selves, the undefined dissatisfaction that 
 has hovered round the Deijartment of 
 Agriculture since its inception is mainly 
 due to the fact that it has failed to ap- 
 preciate adequately, and to minister to, 
 the strongly-felt want of the American 
 farmer for more information directly to 
 the point, — information bearing not 
 merely upon theoretical and future ques- 
 tions, but upon problems immediately 
 
Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 21 
 
 before him, and bearing within them the 
 alternative of success or faihire, crops 
 or no crops. In a word, the depart- 
 ment has failed to lead, and has barely 
 even followed promptly, the movement 
 of public opinion and demand in respect 
 to agricultural questions, while some- 
 times taking vigorously in hand some 
 single pet problem, and thereby show- 
 ing what might be done from this cen- 
 tral position with a keener professional 
 insight, and with broader views. 
 
 That the grounds of the department 
 at Washington are utterly inadequate to 
 the needs of the most modest experi- 
 ment station is obvious, and has been 
 alluded to by all commissioners. The 
 attempt made some time ago to obtain 
 a larger plot of land for the purposes of 
 the department, in the neighborhood of 
 "Washingtoji, failed ; and this is perhaps 
 not to be regretted, as the tendency 
 seemed to be to render the new domain 
 subservient to the purposes of the vicious 
 system of seed distribution, and the crit- 
 ical undertaking of a " model farm " of 
 doubtful utility, especially under semi- 
 political management. The reported re- 
 sults of the tea-farm experiment in South 
 Carolina have cast another unpropitious 
 shadow upon such projects. Yet it is 
 difficult to see why, with a proper pro- 
 fessional organization independent of 
 party management, well-conducted ex- 
 perimental farms, under the direction of 
 the commissioner, should not be as pos- 
 sible here as they are in Europe. And 
 it can hardly be questioned that in the 
 remoter and climatically widely differ- 
 ent regions, such as the Pacific coast 
 and the " arid " belt lying between the 
 Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mount- 
 ains, the establishment of branch bu- 
 reaus, under the care of assistant com- 
 missioners, is needed for the purpose of 
 securing to them the advantage of an 
 adequate consideration of their peculiar 
 interests. In most of the States, how- 
 ever, no new or distinct experiment sta- 
 tions would at present need to be pro- 
 
 vided for, since they are already organ- 
 ized, in a greater or less degree, in con- 
 nection with the agricultural colleges, 
 under the care of a staff of professional 
 men interested in the most direct man- 
 ner in the successful performance of 
 such experiments as, from the nature of 
 the case, the national department would 
 be likely to desire in their locality. 
 These men would, as a rule, joyfully 
 avail themselves of the opportunities 
 afforded them by assistance from the 
 department, rendered under conditions 
 similar to those usually made by the 
 Smithsonian Institution, so noted for se- 
 curing the highest grade of work at the 
 least possible cost. 
 
 The failure to seek and secure the act- 
 ive cooperation of the agricultural col- 
 leges is one of the most conspicuous 
 omissions of the Department of Agri- 
 culture. Through them its most useful 
 influence could have been exerted, and 
 its most authentic information as to 
 facts and wants obtained. For some 
 years, a somewhat extended account of 
 the operations and condition of these 
 colleges formed a part of the report of 
 the department ; but that subject has 
 since been left to the Bureau of Edu- 
 cation, — properly, so far as the merely 
 educational {)art is concerned, l)ut im- 
 properly as regards the ignoring of the 
 general work they have been doing in 
 the improvement of agricultural meth- 
 ods and knowledge. To speak plainly, 
 the national Department of Agriculture 
 seemed to act, in a measure, as though 
 the colleges and experiment stations 
 were not in existence. Instead of assist- 
 ing them and summing up their work, 
 it ignored them sometimes even in the 
 matter of distribution of seeds and de- 
 partment reports. ' Its traveling em- 
 ployees seemed at times to keej") out of 
 the way of the existing institutions, often 
 laboriously gathering anew information 
 already abundantly in the possession of 
 the latter. If this was done or omitted 
 under the impressiou that the colleges 
 
22 
 
 Progress in Agriculture. 
 
 or stations were indisposed to cooperate, 
 so much the more would it have been 
 incumbent upon an enlightened chief of 
 such a department to seek them out, and 
 stimulate them into active cooperation. 
 Except in the matter of an occasional 
 call for a convention, of which the com- 
 missioner was to be the conspicuous cen- 
 tre, and whose results have not been 
 very apparent, the colleges have had 
 but little attention from the department 
 at Washington. 
 
 All this would be at once changed 
 were the commissioner to become a 
 technical expert, responsible not only 
 officially to the government, but amen- 
 able to that rigorous and incorruptible 
 tribunal constituted of his scientific and 
 technical compeers, and under the stand- 
 ing menace of a loss of his professional 
 reputation, which no whitewashing com- 
 mittees, in or out of Congress, could in 
 any manner condone or undo. The sub- 
 stitution of the opinion and judgment of 
 the republic of letters and science for 
 that of the political one would constitute 
 a self-executing measure of civU-service 
 reform which would quickly sweep away 
 the clogs and barnacles that have here- 
 tofore beset the progress of the depart- 
 ment toward its highest usefulness. It 
 would at once place it in a position of 
 active and necessary reciprocal sympa- 
 thy and cooperation with the agricul- 
 tural colleges and experiment stations, 
 and, through these, with the real wants 
 of every portion of the agricultural 
 domain. It would thus naturally and 
 legitimately become the leading centre 
 of agricultural information and prog- 
 ress, gathering up all the disconnected 
 threads, now scattered from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, into a radiating net-work. 
 
 conveying back and forth messages of 
 mutual information and encouragement, 
 by deed as well as by word. 
 
 The field is a wide and magnificent 
 one, both as to the opportunities it af- 
 fords, and as to the practical importance 
 of the results that will reward its intel- 
 ligent cultivation. It is so vast that 
 the proposition to enlarge the scope of 
 operations of the department by charg- 
 ing it with the duties of a general " bu- 
 reau of industry " seems almost a satire 
 upon its past history. Moreover, out- 
 side of the land office and the care of 
 the Indian tribes (the latter, it is to be 
 hoped, a subject soon to be eliminated 
 from its executive responsibilities), the 
 Department of the Interior would as 
 naturally cover, under its general intent, 
 a bureau of manufactures and mines as 
 a bureau of agriculture. 
 
 If it should be contended that the car- 
 rying into effect of the system outlined 
 in the preceding pages would necessitate 
 too great an increase of expenditure, 
 the answer is that if the present ap- 
 propriation were to be tripled or quad- 
 rupled, it would yet bear but an insig- 
 nificant proportion to the magnitude and 
 commanding imi:)ortance of the interests 
 involved, and would be but a fraction 
 of the millions annually wasted upon 
 expenditures of at least doubtful gen- 
 eral utility. The country can far better 
 afford to do without a large proportion 
 of tlie expensive party manoeuvres, in- 
 vestigating committees, and " jobs " de- 
 signed for the manufacture of political 
 capital, than to neglect any longer to 
 foster the fundamental industry, by giv- 
 ing those who exercise it the fullest ben- 
 efit of the lights that education and sci- 
 ence can bestow. 
 
 Eugene W. Hilgard. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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