No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 251 



land grant colleges whose ijurpose it was to gel, to secure some agri- 

 cultural facts. Later we had the experiment stations. Later on, 

 we had our national department of agriculture and the various state 

 departments of agriculture. The point I want to make is this, the 

 great problem half a century ago, was the problem of securing re- 

 liable information of a scientific nature concerning the process of 

 farming. 



Now the great problem before the agricultural leaders of today is 

 not one of securing this agricultural information, although tlierc are 

 still many, many things that we do not know about farming, much 

 as we do know, much as we have inherited from the past, there are 

 still many facts yet to be learned and you and. I will be dead and 

 gone before some of the very simple facts — they may prove to be — 

 will be common knowledge among the people of this State. But even 

 though there is much to be learned, the great problem of today is 

 not one of securing this information. The problem that the agricul- 

 tural leader of today faces is this, it is the problem of taking that 

 information which is available to the people who are on the job, if 

 you will excuse the slang, carrying it from the various sources to 

 the people who are doing the work and further than that, putting 

 that information into operation. 



It is one thing to get this information ; it is another thing to take 

 this information to the people who want it, and another thing to get 

 that information put into operation ; and the great task facing us to- 

 day is this task of carrying this information to the people who want 

 it. That is why we have federal aid for this work; that is why our 

 National Department of Agriculture is carrying on all these demon- 

 strations throughout the United States. That is why the State De- 

 partment of Agriculture with its very efficient corps of instructors, 

 is busily engaged in this very proposition because that is the job of 

 the agricultural leaders of today. And right here in passing, I want to 

 pay a tribute to the man who stands at the head of our State De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the past few years and who has been 

 developing that department of agriculture into a very efficient de- 

 partment. I say, long may this Department live and may its effi- 

 ciency be further increased, and I also want to pay a tribute to the 

 men who are engaged in this very business which I think, and I am 

 not alone in this, is the business of the agricultural leaders of to- 

 day, that is the business of taking the information from the various 

 sources — and there is no one source — from the various sources, to 

 the people who live in the open country and are endeavoring to put 

 this information into practical operation, and you men who are mem- 

 bers of this Department of Agriculture, engaged in this work, ought 

 to take renewed faith in this cause in which you are working. 



In passing, I merely want to say that I believe you are all engaged 

 in what is today the big agricultural problems. There are problems 

 that are to be solved right on the farm, that is true, but it has been 

 pointed out to us time and again, that there is already enough in- 

 formation which, if put into operation, would save us millions of 

 dollars every day. Our state colleges, experiment stations, the Na- 

 tional Department of Agriculture, all these agencies have now a 

 vast amount of available information, but the problem is to get it to 

 the people who want it, and after you get it there, to get it into 

 practical operation. 



