EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXVI. January, 1912. No. 1. 



Columbus, Ohio, was the mecca of a considerable number of socie- 

 ties for agricultural science and education in the middle of last 

 November, and the meetings held there, covering a period of about 

 a week, resembled a live and comprehensive congress of agriculture. 



Beginning with the annual meeting of the Association of Farmers' 

 Institute Workers, which started November 13, the gathering in- 

 cluded meetings of the American Societies of Agronomy and of 

 Animal Nutrition, the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 

 Science^ the American Farm Management Association, the new 

 American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teach- 

 ing, the Association of Official Seed Analysts, and the Association of 

 Feed Control Officials, concluding with the annual convention of the 

 Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Sta- 

 tions. The National Grange and the Ohio State Grange were also 

 in session in the city during the week. 



Such a gathering well illustrates the present organization of agri- 

 cultural science and education, and shows the remarkable activity in 

 this respect since the first convention of the agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations less than 25 years ago. The above list by no 

 means embraces all the present-day societies devoted to the promotion 

 of agricultural science. To the list might be added the Society for 

 Horticultural Science, the Association of Economic Entomologists, 

 of Dairy Instructors, and of Horticultural Inspectors, as well as the 

 Official Agricultural Chemists, the Society of Agricultural Engineers, 

 and the American Breeders' Association. These all exist as inde- 

 pendent organizations, with no affiliation or means of exchange with 

 each other, and with little knowledge of one another's activities or 

 means of keeping posted. Many of them are comparatively new, 

 several are small in numbers, but each has taken to itself a special 

 field and is doing active and energetic work. 



In addition to this development of special societies, many of the 

 scientific societies, in whose programs papers bearing on agriculture 

 rather than the primary sciences would hardly have been looked for 

 a few years ago, are now giving prominence to discussions of soil 

 fertility, crop production, plant improvement, and met^^ods of in- 

 vestigation bearing on typical agricultural questions. This was, 

 perhaps, never more marked than at the meeting of the American As- 



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