AGEICULTURE AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 543 



in the Connecticut Valley, and the recent discovery of a .soil in Texas 

 said to produce to))acco with the peculiar aroma of the Cuban product. 

 In the Yazoo Valle^^ of Mississippi a way has been pointed out whereby 

 thousands of acres of flooded bottom land can be reclaimed for cotton 

 growing. In the West the officers of the Bureau have satisfied them- 

 selves that nuich of the 6,000,000 acres of alkali soil can be made pro- 

 ductive by proper methods of drainage, and they are attempting to 

 demonstrate their theory to the people in the alkali regions. 



A. C. True, speaking of the Offi^ce of Experiment Stations, con- 

 sidered it first, in relation to the agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations, as a general agency for the promotion of agricultural educa- 

 tion and research. On the economic side these institutions are doing 

 much to increase the amount of production and to raise its quality 

 through the application of science to agriculture. On the social or 

 educational side they not only provide much material for eft'ective 

 courses of study in the theory and art of agriculture, but also furnish 

 the motive for definite technical education in agriculture; and this is 

 changing the intellectual attitude of the farmer from conservatism to 

 progressiveness, broadening and deepening his intellectual life — a 

 service as important, to say the least, as improving his material con- 

 dition. Some of the leading lines of work of the Office were men- 

 tioned, such as the publication of this journal and numerous technical 

 and popular bulletins, the formulation of the principles on which insti- 

 tutions for agricultural research should be organized and managed, 

 the promotion of technical education for the farmer, by encouraging 

 the formulation of a distinct science of agriculture and its reduction 

 to ''pedagogic form" to meet the requirements of difi^erent grades of 

 students, the organization and management of agricultural experiment 

 stations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Eico, and the investigation of 

 problems in the nutrition of man and in irrigation, in cooperation with 

 othei" scientific organizations. 



Descriptions of the work in several other bureaus and divisions have 

 been noted elsewhere. 



The meetings afforded opportunity for the visitors to inspect the 

 laboratories of the Department, which was eml)raccd l)y man}'. This, 

 with the discussions of the work of the various branches in general and 

 of special lines of work in the different section meetings, conveyed to 

 many a nmcli clearer idea of the ol)jects, scope, equipment, and work- 

 ings of the Department in various lines. 



