C\'' « • • * t^^' s • • ^ "O" ^.' 4 o. ^0 ^^o:^ ■?: <^^ '"-^"^ .^^ ..„ V '%K^t ■^ ^vP\^\ ^'^^0^^ ^'^\ '<^^m^ /^ ^^ '-^i:^,^ ^ ^ -^^^ ^^' ■ ■ \/ \^ %.^ '" ■ O V '^ > ^o .^^ o > -^ > -y ^^0^ <^ 'o . , •» G^ .-^^^ o_ ^-"^ V ic# x/ / %/■ -iss.^-^ \./ ;»•- %. * .G^ "^ ..„.-' A ^^ ^"^ ^^-n. 62d Congress, \ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, j Report ^d Session. { I No. 546. ESTABLISHMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENTS. April 13. 1912.— Committed to the Committee of the Wliole Hou^^e on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. Lever, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the fohowing II E P O R T . [To accompany H. R. 22871.1 The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 22S71) to establish agricultural extension departments in connection witli agricultural colleges in the several wStates receiving the benefits of an act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, and of acts supplementary thereto, having considered the same, beg to report it back to the House with amendments and with the unani- mous recommendation that the bill as amended do pass. The object of the bill is to establish agricultural extension depart- ments under tlic direction of the land-grant colleges of the several States to aid in carrying to the ])cople useful and })ractica] informa- tion on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics through field instruction, demonstrations, publications, and otherwise. The Federal Government has committed itself em{)hatically and irrevocably to the policy of appropriating money to aid in the encour- agement, development, and preservation of agriculture, both in the maintenance of its most ellicient Department of Agriculture and through a series of legislative enactments endowing agricultural col- leges and establishing agrictdtural experiment stations in the several States. Thus agriculture has been recognized as of suj)reme impor- tance to the Nation, ami is so recognized by every thoughtful student of present economic conditions. Liberal as we have been toward ouj- agriculture, the fact remains that this Government expends less money for its encouragement and development, in proportion to its population and the extent of its agricultural area, than any nation of Europe, with the })ossible exce})- tion of Spain. It was recently pointed out, in a rehable farm journal, that less than 1 per cent of the annual total appropriations of the Government is expended for i)urposes of aiding agriculture — a most significant statement when agriculture is unquestionably the basic 2-- 2 AGRICULTUEAL EXTENSION DEPAETMENTS. ^- industry upon which is buildetl every other industry and upon which is dependent the real prosperity of the Nation. The enactment of the fii-st Morrill Act, "for the endowment, sup- port, and maintenance of at least one colleg;e where the leadin"' object shall be * * * to teach such branches of learnino- as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," was epochal, being the first serious national effort to aid agriculture in a practical way. As a result of this encouragement and Federal recognition, every State has a well-equipped agricultural and mechanical college, train- ing its young men to solve agricultural and industrial problems. It was soon discovered that their peculiar didlculty lay in a hick of sufficient, definite, and exact scientific information. Realization of this insufficiency became so manifest and so insistent that the Hatch Act, establishing agricultural experiment stations, "to pro- mote scientific investigation and experiment, respecting the princi- ples and applications of agricultural science," was enacted 25 years after the land-grant colleges were authorized. Under this act agri- cultural experiment stations, devoting their energies to gathering scientific truths and exploding harmful fallacies touching agriculture, have been established in each of the States. Subsequent legislation has been confined to the enlargement of the funds for the furtherance of the fundamental ideas involved in the original Morrill and Hatch Acts, since the enactment of which the Federal Government has expended S67,000,000 upon these institu- tions, as follows: Statement showing the amount o/ money that has been expended by the Federal Government Jor State experiment stations and agricultural colleges. STATE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. Total amount expended under the Hatch Act from 1888 to June 30, 1911 $16. 807. 338. 94 Total amount allotted under the Hatch Act during the fiscal year 1912 up to and including the quarter ending Mar. 30, 1912 540, 000. 00 Total under Hatch Act 1 7, 347, 338. 94 Total amount expended under the Adams Act from 1906 to June 30, 1911 2. 828, 665. 21 Total amount allotted under the Adams Act during the fiscal year 1912 up to and including the quarter ending Mar. 30, 1912 540, 000. 00 Total under Adams Act 3, 368, 665. 21 Total for State experiment stations under both acts 20, 716, 004. 15 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. Total amount paid from 1890 to 1912, inclusive, under the acts of Aug. 30, 1890, and Mar. 4, 1907 28. 802, 000. 00 Proceeds from sale of land 13. 348. 041. 00 Value of unsold land (estimated ) 5. 042, 388. 00 Total for agricultural colleges under both acts, etc 47, 192. 429. 00 RECAPITULATION. Total for State experiment stations 20. 716, 004. 15 Total for agricultural colleges 47, 192, 429. 00 Grand total 67. 908. 433. 15 ^ AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENTS. 3 When it is remembered tliat only a very small })er ceiU of the })ec)j)le can enjoy the direct benefits of these institutions, it is evident that the system of Federal aid to aojriculture is yet incom])lete. "The colleges deal with ideas; the stations with facts. The colleges teach theories of agriculture; the stations ])rove good theories and dis])r()ve j)oor ones." The stations gather facts of a })ractical and scientific natm'e: the colleges disseminate these facts, but only to limited numbers in proportion to the total rural population. Your committee believes that this bill is the next logical, necessary stej) to give this country the most comprehensive system of govern- mental aid to agriculture in the world. The central idea of the bill is to bring to the farmer, upon the farm, this information, these scientiiic truths, and these better methods of agriculture which the colleges and stations have been and are gathering. Past legislation has resulted in the accumulation of valuable agricultural informa- tion; this bill pro])oses to disseminate it in the most practical and far-reaching manner. Objection can not be urged to the bill on the theory that it proposes to commit the Government to a new and untried pohcy. It seeks only to give fuller force and more complete effect to the agencies already created l)y congressional action. Thirty-four of the States are now supporting, through their agricultural colleges, some kind of agricultural extension dej^artments; l)ut, as urged before the com- mittee, the moral effect of tlie aid of the Federal Government u})on this line of work will be of incalculal)le value in further extending and ])romoting it. The bill has received the most emphatic indorsement of the leading agricultural thinkers of the coimtry, the rural press, influential busi- ness associations, agricultural organizations, and is ex])licitly com- mended by President Taft in his address at the Kansas City Con- servation Congress, in this language: The welfare of the people is so dependent on improved ale country, in a larger measure, what has been accom])lished for tlie South in a smaller way under the farmers' cooperative demonstration work. Your c(^mmittee submits for the infornuition of the House the following brief analysis of the bill by sections: Section 1 autliorizes that agricultural extension departments nuiy be established in each State in connection with its land-grant college or colleges and permits the State in which two (;r more such colleges have been or shall be established to designate whicJi may administer the funds. Section 2 defines tlie ol^ject and chity <(f these agricultural extension departments to be to give instruction and ])ractical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics througJi field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise. Section 3 makes frankable printed matter and correspondence for the furtherance of tiie purposes of the act, issued from the agricul- tural colleges or by agents of the extension departments therec f. This privilege is necessary in order that the ])lan of tlie bill may be executed. Section 4 is the aj)pr()j>riating section of the biU and provides that a sum of $10,000 shall be aj)proi)riated anntuilly to each State which shall assent to the provisions of the act. This annual appropriation is a straight, unconchtional appropriation to the several States, and amounts each year to a charge uj)()n the Treasury of $480,000. The additional sum of $800,000 is a})])roj)riated for the fiscal year 1914 and an annual increase of this appropriation of $300,000 a year, over the preceding year, for a ])eriod of nine years is provided until the total amount of additional ap)>ro])riations will be the sum of $3,000,000 annually. But these additional apj)r()priations, or this sum of $3,000,000 annually, is to l)e allotted among the several States in the proportion which their rural population hears to the total rural |)oi)ula- tion of the United States, as determined by the next j)rece(ling Federal census. The Census Bureau defines as "urban })opulation that resid- ing in cities and other incorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more, inclucfing the New England towns of that ])Oj)ulation." The bill provides a sum of $10,000 per year to each State unconditionally, and })rovides also that no State is to be entitled to any part of its allotment of the additional sums until its legislature has ])rovided for the establishment of agricultural extension departments, as })ro- vided in section 1 of this bill, and it requires further that no State §hall receive of these additional aj){)ro])riations a sum exceeding the sum appropriated by its legislature for that year for this purpose, or 6 AGEICULTUKAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENTS. provided by State, county, college, or local aiithontv. The idea is that there must be furnished to these extension departments by some authority other than the Federal authority as much as is provided by the Federal Government — no more and no less. "For example, the allotment to a given State might be the sum of S50,000, which the State would receive if it should duplicate this amount, but it might happen that the State would desire to appro- priate for such a purpose only $25,000, in which event such State would l)e entitled only to $25,000 of the Federal funds in addition to the $10,000 which is given each year unconditionally. The com- mittee submits a table showing the total population of the United States by States and the total rural population by States, and the amount of these additional sums to which each State will be entitled under the basis of allotment as provided in the bill wdien the act shall mature at the end of 10 years, to which must be added for each State the sum of $10,000 unconditionally appropriated. The table is as follows: state. Total popu- lation. Total rural population. Per cent of total rural popu- lation in the United States and by States, i Amount of appropria- tion allotted each State, Ignited States 91,972,266 49,348,883 53.7 $3,000,000 2,138,093 : 204,354 1,574,449 2,377,549 799,024 1,114,756 202,322 752,619 2. 609, 121 325, 594 5,638,591 2,700,876 2,224,771 1,690,949 2,289,905 1,6.')6,388 742,371 1,295,346 3,. 366. 416 2,810,173 2.075,708 1.797.114 3.293.335 376. 053 1,192.214 81,875 430, 572 9,113,614 2,537,167 327,301 2,206,287 577,056 4,767,121 1,657,155 672,765 7,665,111 542,610 1,515,400 .583,888 2,184,789 3,896,542 373,351 355,956 2,061,612 1,141,990 1,121,119 2,333,860 145,965 1,767,662 141,094 1,371,768 907,810 394, 184 114,917 105,237 533,539 2,070,471 255,696 2,161,662 1,557,041 1,544,717 1.197.159 1.734.463 1.159.872 360,928 637,154 241,049 1,483,129 1,225,414 1,589,803 1,894,518 242,633 881,362 68,508 175,473 1,928,120 629,957 280,730 1,887,813 513, 820 2,101,978 1,337,000 365,705 3,034,442 17,956 1,290,568 507, 215 1,743,744 2,958,438 200,417 187,013 1,585,083 536,460 992,877 1,329,540 102,744 3.58 .29 2.78 1.84 ,80 .23 ,21 1.08 4,19 ,52 4,38 3,16 3,13 2, 43 3.51 2.35 .73 1.29 .49 3.01 2.48 3.22 3.84 ,49 1.79 .14 ,35 3,91 1,28 .57 3,83 1.04 4,26 2.71 .74 6.15 .04 2.62 1.03 3.53 5.99 .41 .38 3.21 1.08 2.01 1 2.69 ,21 107,400 8,700 83,400 .55,200 24,000 6,900 6,300 Florida 32,400 125,700 15,600 Illinois 131,400 94,800 93,900 Kansas 72,900 105,300 70, 500 21,900 38, 700 14,700 90,300 74, 400 96, 600 115.200 14,700 .53,700 4,200 10,500 117,300 38,400 17,100 114,900 North Dakota 31,200 Ohio ^^ Oklahoma ^^ . Wm^- Oregon -9^%^ 127,800 81,300 22,200 184,500 Rhode' Island , . ^ '^ 1 1,200 78,600 South Dakota ^^ Tennessee ^k- - "^ ■■■/■} Texas .^P^ .\A, Utah . . .r \J 30,900 105,900 179,700 12,300 1 11,400 1 96,300 32,400 60,300 80,700 Wyoming 6,300 AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENTS. 7 It made mandatory that not less than 75 per cent of all moneys available under this act shall be expended each year for field instruc- tion and demonstrations. The remainder of the money is available for extension work proper, home economics, and allied subjects. The remaining sections, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, deal largely with the administrative features of the bill and follow closely the adminis- trative features of the Hatch ami Adams Acts. The committee recommends the following amendments: On page 2, line 7, after the word "two." insert the words '"or more." On page 5, line 4, after the word "equal," strike out the word ^'quarterly" and insert the word "semiannual." On page 5. line 5, after the word "January," strike out the conuna and the word ''April" and the comma, and insert the word "and"; and after the word "July" strike out the comma and the words " and October." On page 6, line 22, after the word "the," strike out the word "next"; and after the word ''Congress" strike out the comma and insert the follo^^'ing: "next succeeding a session of the legislature of any State from which a certificate has been withheld." 4"^ % ' \* ,. -^ -" ^^ o V .0^ ^ .:*'V' /I, ^•^ 0'^' "^ '-^^-^^ y aO v. "^ .^^ ^ A .^' 'V V ... ..,,.,.. ^ ^"^ '^^ ^ ^0 ^ ^^\ . ''^-^ o o o V .vj "V "^ x^^ "^^ *»•"' A° ^-..<- A> c y , « -. „ '^^ A ^i^' "-£» ,^" ,.. ^^. '•'' .N^ ^ y^ ^^..^^ O "\."^^ .^ ■&.X y./'""°'- % .vV.i^-., c:. ■' "^-^.^^ ••'^'•- %/ .*^M' ^ •• . . 5 ^0 \2 '„ _ . » A.

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