330 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



National Government should first make an investigation of tlie 

 entire field which the system is to cover. For this a corps of 

 expert investigators could be employed to devote their entire time 

 to the discovery and perfecting of a system suitable for use by 

 the agricultural educational institutions of the country, in order 

 that all of these agencies might avail themselves of the latest 

 and best methods for teaching agricultural subjects both to classes 

 in school and college, but most important of all, to the mass of 

 people who can never go to the higher industrial institutions of 

 learning. A similar body of experts could likewise be employed 

 to go into the several States upon invitation of the proper local 

 authorities to demonstrate as teachers the value of the methods 

 desired to be introduced. 



DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION, THE GREAT NEED OF AGRICULTURE. 



There is just now a great accumulation of agricultural informa- 

 tion stored in books, bulletins, offices and in department bureaus 

 and reports. Like a bountiful supply of water in a reservoir, there 

 is needed before it can be of service, distributing mains and pipes 

 to lead it into the homes of the people who need it for daily use. 

 Distribution of information is the most crying need in agriculture 

 to-day; greater than investigation, research or higher education, 

 necessary as these all are. 



The several states and the National Government which estab- 

 lished the Land Grant Colleges for instruction in agriculture and 

 the mechanic arts, and the agricultural experiment stations for 

 research, cannot afford to neglect to provide that the results which 

 these institutions have discovered and will continue to discover 

 are disseminated and put to use as raj>idly as possible, and not 

 remain unutilized for lack of conveyance to the homes and into 

 the practice of people. 



Congress by the Land Grant Act of 1862 and by its several sup- 

 plements provided for higher education in agriculture, and by 

 the Act of 1887 establishing the experiment and research stations, 

 made provision for the discovery of new truth in agricultural 

 science and practice. It now remains for Congress and the several 

 States who accepted the provisions of these several Grants to com- 

 plete their work in industrial education by providing for the proper 

 distribution of the truths discovered among those who from lack 

 of money, previous educational advantages, or because of family 

 ties and duties are unable to go to college or to understand and 

 intelligently apply the methods which the scientific institutions of 

 the country have discovered as adapted to their use. 



Th'e necessity for such distribution just now in this country needs 

 no argument to prove. It is manifest on every side, and is voiced 

 by every intelligent farmer and by every industrial educational 

 institution in the land. The practicability of the methods proposed 

 for instructing agricultural people has been demonstrated through 

 a long i>eriod and on an extended scale by every European country 

 until there is no longer any room for doubt in this respect, and 

 the great value of these methods to the country is manifest from 

 a comparison of the agriculture of the United States with that of 

 those countries that have adopted the form of distribution which 

 employs the itinerant school, the advisory instructor, and the demon- 

 stration farm and field in the dissemination of agricultural truth. 



