No. G. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 39 



appropriation of tuiisiderable amouiiL 11', liowever, a moderate sum 

 of money could be appropriated each year in the furtherance of a 

 museum, very soon the State would have an exhibit of which it would 

 not need to be ashamed. The appropriation asked for last year for 

 this purpose was not given, and as a consequence, nothing could be 

 done to carry forward this important work. 



A modern museum in agriculture should not be a place for the mere 

 piling up of material in order to liU space. It should be educational 

 in its purpose rather than spectacular. To multiply bushels of grain 

 or tons of vegetables, or the arranging of sheaves in fantastic form, 

 has no educational value. Any well conducted city market will show 

 all this any day of the year. A great State Department of Agricul- 

 ture cannot atlord to appear before an intelligent and discriminating 

 public with the common-place, everyday productions familiar to 

 every country child, but must make use of the advanced scientific 

 knowledge of agriculture and exhibit the results of the application of 

 this knowledge in the producing of crops. An exhibition of wheat, 

 for instance, should show the plant in its stages of growth. The 

 grain, the flower, the roots, the bran, the dust. There should be shown 

 the starch, the gluten, the oil, the chemical constitution as affected by 

 fertilizers, soil, moisture, sunshine; should show ihe soil and its con- 

 stitution, the insects that affect the plant, the fungus diseases that 

 attack it, the yield, the fertilizers adapted to its growth, together 

 with an account of the rainfall which it received, the temperature dur- 

 ing the period of growth, and all of the facts that had any influence in 

 the production of the crop. Such an exhibition becomes a study and 

 is worth the time and attention of any man who is interested in know- 

 ing the best way to cultivate or manufacture this cereal. An exhibit 

 at any great fair, to be at all in keeping with the dignity of the State, 

 should be arranged in Divisions, each in charge of a scientific expert, 

 to prepare, and afterwards to oversee, while on exhibition. A Divi- 

 sion of Cereals, one of Forage Crops, one of Live Stock, one on Dairy 

 Products, others on Soils, Fruits and Fruit Husbandry, Vegetables, 

 Flowers and Foliage Plants, Insects, Fertilizers, Poultry, Tobacco, 

 Bacteria, Statistics. Such an exhibit, properly prepared, arranged and 

 explained, would be worth more to the farming public than all of the 

 train loads of products usually heaped up in agricultural buildings at 

 these great fairs. Py having such an exhibit, placed in portable 

 cases, it could be preserved from year to year and serve to interest 

 and instruct agricultural people for a generation to come, and always 

 be available for shipment to any part of the country where its pres- 

 ence is desired. 



The Department of Agriculture ought to begin the preparation of 

 such a Museum, and a proper appropriation for this work ought to be 

 made by the next Legislature. 



