SOME PRESENT PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURE 



BY LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY 



[Liberty Hyde Bailey, M.S., Director of the State College of Agriculture, Cornell 

 University; Dean of the Faculty, and Professor of Rural Economy, b. March 

 15, 1858, South Haven, Michigan. B.S. Michigan Agricultural College; M.S. 

 ibid. Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College, 1884; Professor of Horticulture, Cornell University, 1888-1903. 

 Member of American Philosophical Society;, Fellow of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, and various professional societies. Editor of Tlie Rural 

 Series of books, of the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, and Cyclopedia of 

 American Agriculture. Author of many books on horticulture, botany, agricul- 

 ture, and outdoor subjects.] 



AGRICULTURE is now in a transitional stage. It is passing from 

 the old to the new. It is pupating. The problems are great, and they 

 all have a forward look. 



Most of these problems are incapable of solution quickly. They 

 must ripen and mature. They are many; this paper proposes only 

 to state a few of them that appeal most to me, leaving the discus- 

 sion of them to others. 



The problems of agriculture are of pressing importance, both to 

 agriculture itself and to the public welfare. They are of two kinds : 

 (1) the technical problems of the business, (2) the problems of 

 adjustment to the affairs of our growing civilization. 



The problems of adjustment are of the greatest public concern 

 because agriculture is our greatest occupation and is necessary to 

 civilization. Of all occupations, it employs most men, most capital, 

 and is followed in the most places. It probably must always employ 

 from one fifth to one fourth of the people of any self-sustaining 

 nation. There are supernumerary, eleemosynary, and parasitic 

 occupations; but agriculture is basic. 



Other occupations have had their day in the public appreciation. 

 All of them have been born out of agriculture. Tubal-Cain was the 

 descendant of Adam. The greatest of public problems are to come 

 with the rise of the agricultural peoples. Just because it is basic, 

 agriculture has been conservative and patient. Fundamental strata 

 are likely to be azoic; but in great world-movements they are also 

 likely to rise permanently to the top. 



The farmer is a wealth-producer. Therefore his importance in the 

 body politic is primary. He deals with elemental forces. As a wealth- 

 producer, he will come to have a larger voice in the expenditure and 

 waste of wealth in maintaining armaments of war. All his instincts 

 are of peace. 



The public problems of agriculture have been slow to gain recog- 



