298 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



spreading its influence out into the community and into everj'tliing affecting 

 men's lives." 



A plan proposed by the Massachusetts Federation of Churches was presented 

 by the committee on training of the rural ministry. This plan recognized that 

 the country minister should be as able and as thoroughly equipped a man as any 

 other minister and should be trained for leadership. C. J. Galpin, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, presented a plan calling for a nondenominational 

 theological scliool to be located in close proximity to some agi-icultural college 

 in the middle West for the preparation of rural ministers. He believed that 

 this might counteract the prevailing drift of the ministry to city churches. 



Prof. John Fiske, of Oberlin College, presented a report on financing the 

 country church, calling attention to its opportunities as a nearby missionary 

 field. He also maintained that if highly endowed and trained men would 

 permanently enter the field, country people would finance their own churches 

 in due season. 



A report on The Allies of the Country Church discussed the Young Men's 

 Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association. Miss 

 Jessie Field discussed the position of the country girl in any scheme for 

 community betterment. 



President W. O. Thompson, of Ohio State Universitj-, gave an address on 

 The Country Church and Rural Activities, and Rev. Dr. ^Mosiman on the 

 Social Responsibility of the Church to Its Community, including not only the 

 various religious groups but the foreign-born, class groups such as tenants and 

 hired help, young people without special ties, and the like. 



A notable feature of the conference was the address of President Wilson, 

 who spoke of some results of the past and some opportunities in the future. 

 He maintained that " the church has dei)ended too much upon the individual 

 example. We must have more cooperation, the vital principle of social life. . . . 

 Surely the church is the instrumentality by which rural communities may be 

 transformed; and surely there is nothing in the country community in 

 which the church ought not to be the leader and actual vital center." He 

 enumerated viie encouragement of cooi>erative buying and marketing among 

 farmers and the quickening of the social life as special fields of opportunity. 



Nearly all the speakers referred to the extension and other work of the 

 agricultural colleges, and many pleaded for a closer cooperation between the 

 rural churches and these institutions. A policy of cooperation rather than of 

 competition was also strongly advocated between the churches themselves. 



Agriculture at the British Association. — The topics under discussion at the 

 1915 session of the section on agi'iculture dealt especially with problems per- 

 taining to the maintenance and improvement of the food supply. 



The presidential address of R. H. Rew reviewed the existing situation, show- 

 ing a substantial increase in production in Great Britain during the past year. 

 T. H. Middleton compared the relative efficiency for food production of dif- 

 ferent systems o1 farming, advocating greater attention to dairying. J. 'SI. Call 

 discussed the probable effect of the War on the Future of Agriculture in 

 Scotland, and W. H. Thompson took up the situation as regards Ireland. 

 J. Hendrick and E. T. Hainan discussed respectively the outlook with regard 

 to supplies of fertilizers and feeding stuffs. Reducing prevailing wastes of 

 liquid manure and utilizing seaweetls were suggested for conserving the potash 

 supply, while dried yeast and palm-nut cake were described as new fee<ling 

 stuffs of promise. W. Somerville reported pot culture tests which indicatefl 

 an accumulation of fertility in grass land from the use of basic slag. T. B. 

 Wood cited the introduction of new feeding stuffs and the prevention of waste 



