PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSOHATION OF AMERICAN AGRI- 

 CULTURAL COLLEGES AND E\FERL\1ENT STATIONS. 



MINUTES OP THli Cl'NliRAL SESSION. 



MoRXixc; Sessiox, Tuesday, Novembeu 14, U)05. 



The convoulion was callfd U> onlcr at Id o'clock a. in., at. the Slion-ham llotol, 

 by the president, E. 1>. Voorliccs. of New .h-rscy. 



The proceedings were opened with prayer by ^V. II. S. I>euiarest, of New 

 Jersey. 



After the call of the roll of (Ielef,'ates to the convention, the regnlar order was 

 suspended to f,'ive the Secretary of Agriculture opportunity to address the 

 convention. 



AoDRESs BY Hon. .Tamks Wilson, Skcretaby of AoRrcri.TUKK. 



Mr. President axd Gentlemen : I merely dropped in to pay my i-espects to 

 you, and make you welcome to the capital city of our counti-y, and bid you j,'od- 

 speed in your delibei-ations. I was first a station man before 1 was a department 

 man, anil know something about what it is to break new paths throuiih the 

 woods alonj,' these lines, and get tlie farmers to send their boys to college, and 

 coax legislatures to be generous with the research men, and all that ; and when 

 I came down here — with a good deal of reluctance — to do something in the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, my prevailing thought was that I would try to make 

 that institution subservient to the stations of the country, and to help build 

 them up. I found that it was necessary to first build the Department up ; that 

 it was not as strong in educated scientists as it should be; that there was not 

 very much encouragement given to men of that class, and that it was ditlicult 

 to find men to do the work the American farmer wants done, without a stronger 

 force of trained men. We found it necessary to prepare to train within our- 

 selves. There were so many things to be done that the universities and colleges 

 of the land had not yet set about doing, that we have had to do a great deal along 

 the line of strengthening the Department : and so I was compelled to turn my 

 attention to that one thing and push it in all possible directions, to select strong 

 men, and interview Congress occasionally for increased appropriations. We have 

 been doing what we can. We have come to the place where I have been able to 

 give some thought to the experiment stations of the country. Of course it is 

 desirable that the whole should work together as a unit, that whatever the De- 

 partment can do to strengthen a station anywiiere it shall do, and that whatever 

 cooperation can be had between the Department and the stations shall be had 

 along lines that are broad and national in their effects. And then w^hen it comes 

 to the point of what the station can do for its own locality, I come up against 

 the position that the stations are not strong enough to do all the work that their 

 own localities require. 



The Federal Government is not giving the station men money enough. Ihey 

 should have more endowment. We can find facilities for cooperation with 

 every station in the land, and we are doing that with nearly every station in 



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