Seventy-Third Annual Report 1269 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL 



RESOURCES 



Edward van Alstyne 



Your committee regrets the absence, througii illness, of their 

 chairman. Honorable William Gary Sanger, which has necessi- 

 t?ated a less complete report than we desire. The committee has 

 spent considerable time in discussing various measures tending, 

 in our opinion, to the betterment of agricultural conditions in 

 the state. The matter in mind is so far-reaching that we have 

 deemed it unwise to take up in detail the various subjects under 

 consideration, and we would submit the following resolutions 

 as the unanimous opinion of the committee. 



Your conmiittee is of the opinion that all measures for the 

 improvement of agriculture, to be permanently effective, must 

 be founded upon complete and accurate knowledge of conditions 

 as they exist. To embark upon any extensive program of develop- 

 ment without such knowledge is to invite serious waste of time, 

 energy and money. We, therefore, urge that the state cause a 

 survey of its agricultural resources to be made with care and 

 deliberation to the end that information concerning every eco- 

 nomic and social factor affecting the progress of agriculture may 

 be gathered and made available as a basis for intelligent effort in 

 the future. 



Your committee has examined the provisions of Assembly bill 

 ISTo. 19 introduced by Mr. Cole, entitled " An Act making an ap- 

 propriation for the organization and support of county farm 

 bureaus in the various counties of the state." In so far as this 

 bill aims to extend state aid to the county bureaus and to estab- 

 lish a degree of supervision and guidance over such bureaus 

 under the commissioner of agriculture, vour committee recom- 

 mends its favorable consideration. It desires, however, to suggesi 

 that the bill should be more specific in those provisions which are 

 intended to rest power of supervision in the department to the end 

 that the work may be carried on without conflict of authority or 

 the injection of local politics. 



In this connection, your committee desires to call the attention 

 of the society to the urgent need of more thorough coordination 

 among the several governmental agencies now engaged in agri- 

 cultural work. 



