EDITORIAL. 107 



Althoufrli the attendance at some of the sessions was less represent- 

 ative than haJ been expected, nuich interest was developed, especially 

 among people but indirectly associated with agriculture and to whom 

 the agricultural college had hitherto apparently seemed to make 

 little appeal. The conference attracted an amount of attention from 

 the daily press of New England seldom accorded to agricultural 

 meetings, and in many journals the sessions were reported in consider- 

 able detail. At the close of the meetings the Sjrringf.eld Repuhlican 

 commented editorially as follows: 



" To estimate the actual and potential benefits of the conference is 

 impossible, for its coherent variety might appeal to a breadth of inter- 

 ests which can not be mapped or platted and the wholesome strength 

 of the influences may give them life extending beyond our perspective 

 and branching out where we do not see. The idea of a conference on 

 rural progress was a happy conception which was well carried out. 

 It furnished an excellent precedent well worth following." 



The need of a conference of this sort may be attributed in part to 

 an increasing realization of the complexity of the problems confront- 

 ing rural progress and the desirability of thorough understanding 

 and sympathetic cooperation on the part of the various agencies 

 engaged in their solution, and in part to a broader conception of the 

 responsibility of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in 

 all that pertains to rural Avelfare. It indicates a belief that these in- 

 stitutions are to be looked to not only for advice in the growing of 

 crops aild the raising of stock, but also for leadership in matters con- 

 nected with the farmer's roads, his school, and his home — in short, 

 that they are potential agencies of education to an extent as yet 

 realized only in part by the community and perhaps not fully by the 

 institutions themselves. 



Something as to the part which the experiment stations may take 

 in such advancement was developed in the address of Doctor True 

 on The Broad Outlook of the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 

 which he declared to be along educational lines and for the benefit 

 of the village and urban residents as well as the farmers. 



"With their existing financial limitations the stations have prop- 

 erly given their attention thus far principal!}^ to the needs of our large 

 agricultural industries, but they have also done much which is of 

 use to village and city people, and the}^ will undoubtedly enlarge their 

 work in this direction as time goes on and funds increase. The farm- 

 ers need have no fear that the stations will forget them or neglect 

 their interests, but should rather rejoice that in the stations they have 

 a ])owerful agency for bringing city people into closer sympathy with 

 rural people." 



12766— No. 2—07 2 



