AGKICl I.TURAL IXSTRrCTIOX FOR ADULTS IN 

 COXnXEXTAI, COIXTRIES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In most continental countries the iniijority of the population are 

 ent^uoed in utiriculture, and in a nunilx'ias much as 75 per cent depend 

 directly upon farniin*>- for their livcliliood. It is to be expected, 

 therefore, that where so large a portion of tlie population is engaged 

 in this industry special attention would l)e given by the governments 

 of these countri(vs to the interests of the farming people. In many of 

 them the virgin lands were long ago occupied, and now no new soil is 

 to be had except such as ma}' be wrested from the sea, reclaimed from 

 swamps, or taken from the desert. 



Because of this restricted area of cultivated land, it was quite man- 

 ifest that unless some means could be devised ])y which the same soil 

 centiuy after century could be ))rought to produce crops with unfail- 

 ing regularity and in constantl}^ increasing abundance, the country 

 must eventually become iuiinha})itable and the State consequently cease 

 to exist, for it is an historic fact that only nomadic tribes can live in 

 a region where agriculture has ceased to ]>e a profitable pursuit. All 

 of this has been so generally understood and appreciated by foreign 

 nations that long ago their governments gave most careful attention to 

 the subject of animal and plant production, with the result that without 

 exception the}" have reached the conviction that the only solution of 

 the question of improving agriculture sufficiently to enable those who 

 pursue it as a calling to maintain themselves in comfort for all time to 

 come, and also to produce a surplus for use b}- those engaged in other 

 occupations, lies in the proper education of those who conduct its 

 operations. 



According}}^ schools and colleges of agriculture were established in 

 some countries more than a century ago, and now few foreign nations 

 are without institutions established and in part or altogether main- 

 tained b}^ the State for the purpose of discovering agricultural truth 

 and for disseminating this truth among the masses. In many of them 

 the number of such institutions runs into the hundreds. 



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