EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXIV. January, 1916. No. 1. 



Meetings of agricultural workers to consider matters relating to 

 their special fields or to their regions have become more common, and 

 such group gatherings will quite likely form an increasingly impor- 

 tant feature. They are an expression of the common bond of interest, 

 and of the advantage of a closer association and more intimate under- 

 standing of one another's work than can be maintained otherwise. 

 Often they furnish almost the only means of developing and har- 

 monizing methods of procedure and bringing about a closer union 

 of effort. 



In the Southern States an Association of Southern Agricultural 

 Workers has been in existence for many years, and has had consider- 

 able influence on the development of agricultural work and legisla- 

 tion. Starting as an organization of state departments of agricul- 

 ture, it has steadily expanded until it includes the various groups of 

 workers in the agricultural colleges, and especially such as have to do 

 with experimentation and the effective dissemination of its results. 



This association held its seventeenth annual convention at the Uni- 

 versity of Tennessee, in the middle of November. The program 

 covered two days, for a part of which the convention broke up into 

 sections for agronomy and live stock. The attendance was a repre- 

 sentative one, and a very live interest was manifested throughout 

 the meeting in the various topics under discussion. A part of one 

 afternoon was spent in going over the interesting plat and field work 

 of the experiment station, which gave opportunity for discussion of 

 methods and results ; and an evening was occupied with an exhibition 

 of live stock of the university and station, illustrating the purpose 

 and some of the results of the breeding work with horses, mules, and 

 cattle. 



The meeting was not only an enjoyable one for those in attendance, 

 bringing them into closer fellowship, but was felt to be a highly 

 profitable one from the standpoint of the various types of work rep- 

 resented. The enthusiasm developed settled the question which had 

 arisen as to the advisability of continuing the association. The useful 

 place it has occupied in the past was acknowledged, and it was urged 

 that it should be broadened rather than discontinued, addressing 



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