19171 EDITORIAL. 603 



An economic study of the farmer's income as affected by war con- 

 ditions was presented at one of the general sessions by Prof. T. N. 

 Carver, of Harvard University, in which he considered in detail 

 various items of income and outgo during the past season. AVide 

 variations were found in the net profits accruing from different types 

 of farming, ranging from losses on many dairy farms in the North- 

 eastern States, where much grain is purchased, to profits somewhat 

 larger than the average in sections where little or no fertilizer is 

 required and the primary staple crops are marketed. The duty to 

 the Nation at this time of conserving profits, however reasonable or 

 legitimately acquired, was strongly emphasized. 



Special mention should also be made of the stirring speech of 

 President G. C. Creelman, of the Ontario Agricultural College, on 

 Canada's part in the war. Some of the remarkable accomplishments 

 of Canada, particularly that of materially increasing wheat produc- 

 tion despite the wholesale withdrawal of labor to make up an army 

 as large in proportion to population as would be one of 5,000,000 men 

 from the United States, were impressively narrated, and tribute paid 

 to the substantial aid being rendered by the Canadian agricultural 

 colleges and experiment stations. 



The important service of the land-grant institutions in this coun- 

 try was attested by several speakers. Thus Secretary Houston 

 declared that while at the time the country entered the war the 

 Nation was not fully prepared for war in any respect " it was fortu- 

 nately circumstanced in the character of its agricultural organi- 

 zation and the number and efficiency of its expert agencies. In fact, 

 in efficient machinery for directing agricultural activity as repre- 

 sented by the land-grant colleges, the Federal Department of Agri- 

 culture, farmers' organizations, and its alert and patriotic rural 

 population, it excelled any other two or three nations in the world 

 combined." 



" The Nation may well pride itself," he said, " on the fact that 

 it had had the foresight generations ago to lay deep its agricultural 

 foundations." He congratulated the representatives of the land- 

 grant colleges on the fine opportunity for service presented to them 

 and on the splendid way in which they had seized it. " The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has had great comfort in the thought that these 

 institutions, ably planned and wisely directed, existed in every part 

 of the Nation and stood ready not only to place themselves at the 

 service of the National Government but also to take the initiative in 

 a vast number of directions." 



Similarly, President E. C. Perisho, of South Dakota, in a paper 

 before the college section on The Best Things Done by the Land- 



