4 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The Secretary called attention to the growing- need for education to 

 assist not only the farmer himself, Imt all the agencies which are 

 working in his interests, such as the National Department of Agricul- 

 ture, the agricultural colleges, the State experiment stations, the high 

 schools of agriculture, agricultural societies, the agricultural press, 

 writers of books on agriculture, etc. All these agencies need more 

 and better equipped men; and the best method of preparing them for 

 their work is one of the unsolved problems in education. "Five thou- 

 sand students attend agricultural colleges, but these colleges are feeling 

 their way- in the dark along untraveled paths. They are fitting and 

 trying, as carpenters built barns in old times. They will at last forge 

 out a S3\stem that will meet the requirements of producers and ])e 

 entirely new and suitable to our conditions as a people. " Summarizing 

 the present status of agricultural education, he said in conclusion: 

 "We find that progress is being made toward the education of the 

 farmer; that ))elief is extending regarding its interest; that opposi- 

 tion is vanishing among educators whose studies did not include the 

 science of the farm; that demand for instructors and organizers along 

 these lines is growing; that, as a nation, our power for good at home 

 and abroad depends upon the education of all our citizens; and that all 

 classes, kindreds, tongues, and peoples look to you, the educators of 

 America, to lift the whole up to higher intellectual and moral altitudes." 



In 1867 the Royal Society of London commenced the publication of 

 a Catalogue of Scientific Papers, to serve as an index to all important 

 contri])utions to science contained in the transactions of societies, 

 journals, and other periodical literature. The review began with pub- 

 lications of the year 1800, and the results of the compilation were 

 issued from time to time in large quarto volumes of about 1,000 pages 

 each. The eleventh volume, issued in 1895, brought the catalogue 

 down to 1883; and a supplementary volume (volume 12) has just been 

 issued, which is devoted to the more important papers omitted from 

 the earlier volumes. This last volume embraces upwards of 350 

 serials, which were selected with care from a preliminary list of peri- 

 odicals not previously catalogued. 



The stupenduous nature of this undertaking is readily apparent, and 

 the end is not yet, for the period from 1883 to 1900 remains to be 

 compassed. The Royal Society purposes to complete the catalogue 

 up to the close of the nineteenth century, at which point the work has 

 already been taken up by an international organization. 



The societ}' announces that the Catalogue of Scientific Papers from 

 1883 to 1900 is now in hand, and that considerable progress has been 

 made on a classified index to the twelve volumes already issued. As 

 the arrangement is at present b}^ authors only, the classified index will 

 greatly enhance the value of the work and will make it an incom- 

 parable aid in looking up the literature upon a given subject. 



