10 CIRCULAR NO. 116, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



the closest cooperation and exchange of ideas between these committees 

 of experts and the leaders of communities. This will be the final 

 and highest stage of agriculture, which will result in a scientific 

 organization for each of the great crop plants, keeping not only 

 the crop plants themselves but the experts who study them and the 

 communities of farmers who grow them on the highest plane of 



efficiency. 



It is obvious from what has been said that the agriculture of the 

 future will require an intellectual alertness, sustained interest, and 

 business ability which a great many farmers do not now possess. It 

 is no exaggeration to say that modern biology, which is the back- 

 ground of agriculture, is influencing country life as profoundly as 

 electricity has influenced industrial life, and herein lies the hope of 

 the agriculture of the future. This biological background is a realm 

 of fascinating interest, and an appreciative understanding of the 

 facts of nature will not only lead to greater efficiency in agricultural 

 production, but will give that essential mainspring of interest which 

 will make country life agreeable and interesting to a fair proportion 

 of the brightest minds of the country. Country life can not perma- 

 nently be successful unless men of great ability live in the country 

 and are of the country. Our present civilization tends automatically 

 to drain intelligence to the great cities. The most important con- 

 servation is the conservation of human intelligence and the most 

 important indirect advantage of this new agriculture lies in the fact 

 that it points out the means of utilizing in everyday life the won- 

 derful facts of nature placed at our disposal by modern biology. 



[Cir. 116] 



