Ohsmuil iiJiis nil Missouri A</nciil I iirc 



405 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MISSOURI AGRICULTURE AS SEEN 



FROM CENTRAL EUROPE. 



(M. F. Miller, Professor of Agronomy-, University of Missouri.) 



Note — Professor Miller has been in, Germany during the last year on a leave of 

 absence, but will resume his woi-k in the University in the fall of 1911. The following 

 article, prepared especially for this report, was written at Gottingen, Germany, under 

 date of March 6, 1911. 



It is always of value to be able 

 to see one's work as others see it. 

 The man who buries himself in any 

 line of work for years without oc- 

 casionally getting away from it far 

 enough to l)e able to see it from a 

 distance, as it were, is apt to become 

 narrow and to have his ideas per- 

 verted. As I have been closely as- 

 sociated with Missouri agriculture 

 for a number of years and am now 

 spending some time among Euro- 

 l)ean agriculturists, this opportu- 

 nity of seeing Missouri agriculture 

 from a distance, of seeing it from 

 the point of view of the European, 

 1 consider of immense value. This 

 is especially true because of the fact 

 that the agriculture of European 

 countries is so much older than 

 ours, the various operations so much 

 better systematized, and, on the whole, the methods so much better. To 

 be sure the conditions are radically different, but we have here the con- 

 ditions M'hich are later to exist in America, at least in large measure, and 

 it should be of great value to us to study these conditions, in order to so 

 shape our future operations as to incorporate what is desirable and to 

 avoid what is undesirable in the agriculture of these older countries. 

 Undoubtedly the future conditions in the United States will be largely 

 the result of factors over which those interested in better agriculture 

 have little control, but by a proper foresight and a proper instruction of 

 future generations we sliall be al»lc to exert a great influence in bringing 

 about those conditions which are most desirable. 



Prof. M. F. Miller. 



