EDITORIAL. 705 



of agricultural education in our colleges and schools, and hludered 

 the progress of the Department of Agriculture and the experiment 

 stations. As long as there was plenty of free land and agriculture 

 was being spread out by the simplest methods beyond the immediate 

 needs of the nation, although the aggregate of agricultural produc- 

 tion greatly increased, the price of agricultural products constantly 

 tended to fall below the level of profit. Agriculture thus became a 

 backward and depressed industry. The generation of pioneer 

 farmers who had rushed in so eagerly to acquire the free lands be- 

 came disgusted with the financial outcome and outlook of this busi- 

 ness, and sought every avenue of escape from it for their children, 

 Plence the agi'icultural colleges, begun with much enthusiasm, found 

 little support from the farmers, and after a time began to lose even 

 the meager number of students at first attracted to them. 



The Department of Agriculture and the early experiment stations 

 had little encouragement to collect the knowledge on which alone 

 efficient courses in agriculture could be constructed, and remained in 

 a weak and neglected condition. Fortunately there were leaders Avho 

 saw that this condition of affairs could not last, and that the time 

 would come when the farmers would need help and be eager to 

 receive it. The passage of the Hatch Act, twenty-five years ago, 

 marks the turning of the tide. 



In commenting on the change of conditions which has come -with 

 passage of years. Dr. True said : 



" From being a simple and depressed industry, agriculture is becom- 

 ing a highly complicated and progressive industry. The universal 

 use of machinery, the necessary changes in methods, crops, and animal 

 husbandry, to meet the new and varied demands of different regions, 

 have caused an unparalleled reorganization of agricultural industries. 

 The many successful applications of science to agriculture, and the 

 evident need of technical education in agricultural science and prac- 

 tice, have caused the establishment in the United States of the most 

 comprehensive and farreaching system of agricultural research and 

 eclucatio]! ever devised." 



The Department is approaching the close of four successive ad- 

 ministrations under the same guiding hand, a period of sixteen years 

 of marvelous growth and development which have far surpassed the 

 combined product of all the previous years. Some of the facts of 

 this growth are brought together in the last annual report of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, in a retrospect which furnishes a basis for 

 measuring the present scope and diversity of this national agency. 

 These are only faintly indicated by its present income of $24,743,044 

 and its force of 13,858 employees. 



