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nii^'lit 1r' wise to ascertain wliat people di<l in tlie Old World alon*;; the lines of ajrH- 

 ciilture where the eonditions are similar to those found on our northern horder, and 

 so we sent explorers to Norwav and Sweden and Finland, to plaees where people 

 had lived for thousands of years, and i)eople can not live without growing crops and 

 keeping domestic animals. " We wanted to tind out what crops those people had. I 

 confess that I was not thinking of our friends in Canada, hut I think when we get 

 those things here the Canadian people may he interested in some of them, t)ecaiise 

 they are still farther north than we are. Then we sent an explorer to the other side 

 of the world, an<l told him to go U|» along the Yang-tse-Kiang River, and go away 

 up to the foothills of those great mountains wlu-re people have lived, that we know 

 of, for thousands of years (because we have the iiistory of the Chinese people for 

 that length of time)", where tiie i)each and the chrysanthenuun originated, to tind 

 out wha^ legumes grow there an<l l)ring them to us, so that we could send them to 

 our northern tier of States, and to bring us the vegetables and fruits and everything 

 else, so we could help our farmers up there; because some day the people of North 

 Dakota are coming down here to ask us what they will grow in the off years when 

 tiiey can not grow wheat. Of course anything we get which will be of lienetit to the 

 people untler the American Hag will l)e quite as freely extended to our brethren on 

 the north si<le of the line as to our own people, because we really keej) no secrets 

 and hold nothin-: i)ack from anvbodv. I rccollei't when I was called to the director- 

 ship of the Iowa station in ISVtl the" tirst thing 1 did was 1'',^')'.;^;^ ""it" Canada and 

 steal every idea I c(tuld lay my mind on and bring it down to the State of Iowa. So 

 we are under some obligations to those Canadian jieople. 



The matter that is uppermost in the minds of educators along the lines of agricul- 

 tural science is with regard to the education of our yomig i)eople in the common 

 si'hools and ill the secondary or high schools. I was delighted to meet the other 

 day Sir William McDonald," of Canada, a gentleman who has .b ne what 1 never 

 he'ard of being <lone in any other country on earth He gave a ijuarter of a million 

 .lobars to introduce the elements of agriculture into the conunon schools of Canada. 

 Think of that! We have people in the Cnited States who give. They give as 

 much as ten millions at one time for educating along this line and that line, but it 

 never has occurred to anybody in the United States to endow education in the 

 primary and secomlarv scliools! The farmer has been sujiposed to be a fellow who 

 had a place, and it was probably best to have him just stay in that place. It has not 

 occurred to anybody that it was" best to eilucate that man; and yet it is. Two things 

 which have just coiiie to mv attention, one of them mentioned to me by one of o\ir 

 scientists, illustrate that. The people down in Soutli Carolina, on their great river 

 bottoms and seacoast lands, have l)een growing one of the linest rices in the world 

 for many years, at a great profit. But lately a portion of those lands haye refused 

 to grow"ri"ce. Disease has come, and they have gone to growing weeds. Well, the 

 fact that they grow weeds is a bint to any man who has any knowledge of research. 

 Wherever we"eds will grow we can grow something that is useful. So they asked us 

 to see if we could not do something with regard to the cause of failure- of rice on 

 those lands that seemed to be so rich that ther ' is no limit to it. AVe sent our crop 

 experts down there, and, in cooperation with the experiment station pathologist, 

 began making studies, and we got the cause of the troul)le finally. After two years' 

 work it was found that those rich lands had become too sour in i)laces even for rice. 

 Heavy liming was tried, and the experimental fields thus treated grew abundant 

 crops." This indicates that those lands may be l)rought back into bearing again. A 

 very simple thing, but it did not occur to the rice growers and they were nearly 

 ruined. Plans have been made to make ])ig practical farm tests of the results of 

 these experiments. New crops of promise have also been introduced. 



Now, the other thing that has just been brought to my attention is also a very 

 simple thing. We have an apple known as the Albemarle Pippin. One of our 

 ambassadors at the Court of St. James away liack in the olden times gave Queen 

 Victoria a liarrel of those pippins, and she was so delighted that she sent for them 

 every year after that. But the trees were attacked with what is known as the bitter 

 rot, "and the people lost the crop. They sprayed for it, but it did no good; the 

 l)itterrot took the \yhole crop. Finally" it occ'urred to our pathologists that they 

 did not begin spraying soon enough, and that they ought to begin before the leaf 

 comes out. So thev began with a large orchard early in the spring in that way, they 

 spraved throughout the whole summer, and they saved the entire orchard. That 

 means much to the people who grow the Albemarle Pippin. Thtse are simple 

 things, but it requires men of training and observation to do this kind of work. 



The attention which the Department has given to irrigation has possibly led to the 

 adoption bv the Uniteil States Government of the most magnificent system that is 

 designed to use the surplus waters Ol all those great rivers' in the western half of the 



19983— No. 105— 0(>— — 2 



