Ill, — 'THE RISE OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE 



E. 



A MATURE RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT FOR 



AGRICULTURE 



CBy the time of the outbreak of the First World War, the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture had won a secure place in the government. The 

 unique combination of the Department, the state experiment stations, and 

 the land-grant colleges gave the American farmer superb research sup- 

 port. Yet this generally fortunate state of affairs opened up new chal- 

 lenges and problems for those concerned with the application of science 

 to agriculture. What some of them were is suggested by the following 

 selections. 



1. A Scientists Vieiv. One of the scientists who worked in the 

 elaborate system of government supported agricultural services com- 

 ments on the difficulties of guarding the interests of true scientific re- 

 search in the environment of a political organization beholden to a 

 strong and self-conscious economic group. (Eugene Davenport, "The 

 Outlook for Agricultural Science," Sciejice, N.S. XLV [1917], 149-60.)] 



Without wasting time in discussing the question whether there is 

 such a thing as agricultural science, I desire to proceed at once to a 

 brief review of the conditions both favorable and unfavorable to the 

 progress of those scientific activities necessary to the improvement of 

 American agriculture and the welfare of country people upon whom we 

 all depend for our food supply, for the proper employment and treat- 

 ment of our lands, and for certain human qualities best propagated and 

 preserved in the life of the open country. 



No thinking man can fail to be deeply impressed with the magnitude 

 and the far-reaching consequences of what might be called the American 

 program for agricultural advancement. 



This program took definite form in 1862 in the establishment of a 

 national Department of Agriculture, and in the passage of the Land 

 Grant Act, whereby a college of agriculture was established in every 

 state of the union. It was characterized and vitalized a quarter of a cen- 

 tury later by subsequent acts providing for an experiment station in con- 

 nection with every agricultural college; and mightily advanced by state 

 appropriations, in some instances multiplying many times the federal 

 subsidy. So generous indeed were these appropriations that the $30,000 

 of federal funds have been supplemented until the total revenues of cer- 

 tain institutions for agricultural research amount to no less than $200,000 

 annually. 



This combined federal and state program aims directly at an ade- 

 quate and a permanent food-supply, and with equal directness it pro- 

 poses to retain upon the land, if possible, a fair share of the intelligence, 

 the learning, and the culture of the American people. This latter purpose 

 may be called Utopian, but a little reflection will convince even the most 

 skeptical that in no other way can our lands be properly handled, 



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