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Missouri Agricultural Report. 



estimated that the annual increase in population in the United States 

 is more than two millions. It is also estimated that to feed these two 

 million hungry mouths, seventy-five million bushels of food producing 

 cereals are required. When it is remembered that the limit of new and 

 tillable lands in this country is almost reached, one must conclude that 

 the land already imder cultivation must be made to produce this extra 

 product. Just how this can be done is .one of the probleuLS before the 

 people and a ciuestion upon which they are eagerly seeking information. 

 This call and demand for information was anticipated many years 

 ago by a body of men in the United States Congress directly inter- 

 ested in the welfare of agriculture. They were intimately acquainted 

 with the problems of the farmer and foresaw then the trend of this 

 occupation. Through the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, which es- 

 tablished an Agricultural Experiment Station in every State and ter- 

 ritory of the Union, much was done to meet the conditions which ex- 

 ist today. At each Experiment Station a corps of scientific men were 

 employed in the study of soils, crops, horticulture, dairying, animal 



Corn Judging, District Farmers' Short Course. 



husbandry, botany, and entomology. These men did earnest, hard work 

 and have solved many of the farmer's problems. The facts derived 

 from scientific research have been given a practical application and to- 

 day the farmer is in a position to reap the results. 



