69 



A membersliii) coinuiittee was appointed, consisting of a general chairman, 

 Mr. E. D. Funk, of Bloomingtoii. 11!., and a chairman and subconmiitteemen for 

 each State and province of North America. 



The present membershii), inclnding a number of European and Asiatic per- 

 sons and organizations, numljers about 275, of which 15 are life members. The 

 expenses incident to the first meeting and the printing and postage and clerk 

 hire necessai:y in connection with securing members have required practically 

 all the receipts from annual memberships. Since only the proceeds from annual 

 juemberships and the Interest income from life membershii) investments are 

 available for the payment of current e.xpenses, the association is practically 

 without funds with which to jmblish its first annual report. 



The plan adoj)ted for securing memberships has not itroven either convenient 

 or effective, and this w<u'k is being somewhat more closely centered in the sec- 

 retary's office, with the chairman and members of the membership committees 

 and others who volunteer to assist in securing members oi)erating through that 

 agency. A card index pro^■ides a way of keeping account with each person, 

 society, or institution to w hom an invitation to join is sent, and it is proposed 

 that those who should join shall be repeatedly solicited, that a positive or a 

 negative answer may be secured. The jnultiplicity of organizations to which 

 breeders and scientists belong makes it difficult to secure members. 



The association has to offer as inducements to persons to l)ecome members, 

 besides the privileges and responsibilities of its annual meetings, an annual 

 report, a business or professional card in the directory in the annual i-eport, 

 the good offices of the association in having the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 and the experiment stations send to its members such public documents as the 

 directory cards may show that the members are respectively interested in. No 

 doubt other advantageous features will be developed. 



The association is determined that a large membership shall be secured. It 

 is in need of help to gain a sufficient number of annual and life member- 

 ships so that it will be recognized as having been fairly launched as a strong, 

 conservative, and permanent association. It is also in immediate need of suf- 

 ficient financial aid to publish its first annual report, for which there is an 

 abundance of excellent material, 



W. M. Hays, 

 L. H. Bailey, 



C. F. CURTISS, 



H. J. Webber, 

 Thos. F. Hunt, 



Committee. 



The report was accepted and the committee was continued for another year. 



Military- Instruction. 



The following resolution adopted by the section on college work and admin- 

 istration was presented and adopted (see p. 63) : 



Resolved, That the executive committee be instructed to present the views of 

 the association in reference to military tactics to the President of the United 

 States or to the Secretary of War, or both; or, if it seems preferable to the 

 executive committee, that they be authorized to appoint a special committee for 

 this purpose. 



The Upbuilding of Agriculture. 



W. Saunders, Director of Canadian Experimental Farms, read the following 

 paper on this subject : 



It is not my purpose on this occasion to dwell on the history of the progress 

 of agriculture from early times, but to call attention to some points in connec- 

 tion with the marvelous progress which has been made in the United States and 

 Canada in the knowledge and practice of agriculture within a comparatively 

 recent period. 



Agricultural progress in the United States was greatly influenced by the pass- 

 ing of the land-grant act in 1881, by which, through the liberality of Congress. 

 provision was made for the endowment of a college of agriculture and mechanic 

 arts in every State of the Union. The grant was a generous one — 30,000 acres 

 for eacli Senator and Kepreseiitatlve iu Congress to which such State was 



