122 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



valuable agencies for imparting information to a large number of per- 

 sons who would not feel that they could leave home or assume the ex- 

 pense of taking a full course or short course in college. 



The poultry and agricultural press is exerting a potent influence in 

 improving the poultry practice of the country. Each year, more and 

 more, as the readers demand it, the press is giving attention to matters 

 of fundamental importance to those Avho are hungry and thirsty for in- 

 formation. The agricultural colleges owe a great debt of gratitude to 

 the press for the splendid service it has rendered in supporting the work 

 of the poultry departments. They have been pioneers in the campaign 

 of education. They have done much to shape public sentiment by print- 

 ing the facts regarding the shortcomings as well as commending the 

 successes of the poultry departments. 



Eighteenth — The State should develop its agricultural interests and 

 the agricultural colleges, and the experiment stations should give atten- 

 tion to the various branches of agriculture, with some regard to the 

 comparative number of persons concerned. IMore persons are interested 

 in poultry husbandry than in any other one branch of agriculture. It is 

 largely because of this fact that Director L. H. Bailey of the New York 

 State College of Agriculture, one of the best, if not the best friend the 

 poultrymen have ever had, says that he would favor the establishment 

 of poultry departments and provide for their active support if for no 

 other reason than their great pedagogic value based on the fact that so 

 many persons can be reached, as he expressed it, "in terms of their 

 daily lives." The accuracy and force of this statement is abundantly 

 proven at Cornell by the rapidity with which large editions of poultry 

 bulletins are exhausted, for example, 30,000 copies are mailed within a 

 few months, and by the rapid increase in the poultry correspondence, 

 from a few hundred letters to over eight thousand letters per year, and 

 by the large demand for instruction in poultry husbandry, which has 

 increased in seven years from 27 to 174 students selecting Poultry Hus- 

 bandry courses, and many students turned away because of lack of ac- 

 commodations. Similar statements may be made with regard to the 

 poultry department in many other states. This, then, is an abundant 

 justification for the estal)lishment and support of poultry departments. 



In view of these facts is not poultrj^ husbandry entitled to fair con- 

 sideration as a business and as a profession that will rank with other 

 leading occupations, and as such is it not fair to ask for equable consider- 

 ation as a subject to be taught and investigated in the agricultural col- 

 leges and experiment stations? We are willing to let our case rest with 

 that great important jury, that court of last resort, that jury that has 

 settled so many questions and settled them right — the American people. 



