EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD, 



Vol. XXX. May, 1914. No. 7. 



No better evidence is needed of the place which agricultural educa- 

 tion has attained in the public mind than the passage by Congress of 

 the extension measure signed by the President on May 8. It will be 

 recognized as a highly significant step in the advancement of the 

 great national industry through the aid of the General Government, 

 rounding out and completing the movement inaugurated in 1802 

 with the passage of the land-grant act for the establishment of agri- 

 cultural colleges. Since that radical step was taken, which settled 

 the right of the Federal Government to aid education in the States, 

 the national attitude toward direct appropriations for agriculture has 

 undergone a complete change. 



This new measure is the sixth act which recognizes agriculture as 

 an appropriate subject for promotion by the Federal Government, 

 and the fifth to provide permanent grants from the public Treasury 

 to be used through the system of state institutions established by the 

 Morrill land-grant of 1862. If the recognition of agriculture as a 

 subject for national aid and attention has seemed tardy, it has been 

 none the less emphatic, and in this last instance it represents a far 

 wider expression of favor than any previous measure of the sort. 

 The welfare of agriculture, even to the point of considering the indi- 

 vidual farmer and farm home, has become a matter of national 

 concern, limited by no state boundaries. 



The passage of the Extension Act was a response to a widespread 

 public demand, more so than any of the previous acts. Advocacy 

 of it came not alone from a group of educational institutions which 

 conceived the plan and would be the beneficiaries under it; but in 

 an unusual degree it came as an intelligent expression of farmers 

 through their organizations, and from the various agencies which 

 stand close to them, such as the bankers and the railroads, commer- 

 cial clubs and related bodies, and welfare organizations generally. 

 It thus expresses, probably more emphatically than any previous 

 national action, the very general realization of the fundamental rela- 

 tion of agriculture and of the people living under it to the welfare 

 and prosperity of the whole country. Else, why should the nation 



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