PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 309 



To give continuity and permanence to the work of the congress an 

 international connnittee was appointed. The members of this com- 

 mittee for the United States are A. C. True and W. H. Beal, of the 

 Office of Experiment Stations, and L. II. Smith, of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station. 



In the intervals of attendance upon the congress opportunity was 

 aiforded- for inspection of some features of the exposition in con- 

 nection with which the congress was held, especially the agricultural 

 exhibits. These were not especially notable except in case of France 

 and Belgium. In the Belgian agricultural and horticultural build- 

 ing were exhibits of charts, diagrams, models, etc., illustrating in 

 striking manner the thorough organization of agi'icultural education 

 and investigation in Belgium. There were in addition many other 

 interesting exhibits by individuals and firms. A striking and most 

 instructive feature of the Belgian agricultural exhibit was a model 

 farmstead and demonstration farm complete and up to date in every 

 detail, in connection with which many household and farm opera- 

 tions were in progress continuously. There was thus a Horded an 

 excellent opportunity to illustrate by means of a working exhibit 

 the Belgian system of agricultural education and research and the 

 practical application of the results of the system. 



FIKST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS. 



This congress was held at Liege, August 18-20, 1905, in connection 

 with the international exposition in progress there. M. A. Lonay, 

 director of the School of Agricultural Mechanics at Mons, was the 

 moving spirit in the organization of the congress and its secretary- 

 general. The Department delegate to this congress submitted a 

 paper on the Progress of Education and Investigation with Reference 

 to Agricultural Machinery in the United States, which was accepted 

 by the congress and printed in its proceedings. A summary of this 

 paper is as follows : 



Improved agricultural implomonts and mafhinory have played a most im- 

 portant role in the agricultural development and general welfare, of the United 

 States. The general use of labor-saving machinery and the success of Ameri- 

 can inventors and manufacturers in constantly improving and adding to such 

 machinery have resnlted in a steady decrease in the labor cost of agricidtural 

 prochiction, notwithstanding a simultaneous rise in wages. The growing scar- 

 city of farm labor, however, is so enlarging the demand for labor-saving devices 

 that the neeil of increased facilities for instruction and investigation with ref- 

 erence to improved methods of construction and use of such devices is beginning 

 to be felt in the United States. The National Department of Agriculture and 

 the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations are therefore under- 

 taking investigations and planning courses of instruction which are intended, 

 on the one hand, to promote more extcMided and eliicieiit use of agricultural 

 macbiuery, aud ou the ullier, to assist mauul'acturers iu llic coustructiuu of 



