104 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



dollars. The enormous growth of our country in manufacturing, and its 

 present first rank among the nations of the earth in that industry, are 

 largely due to our varied and abundant agricultural resources; the 

 farms furnishing eighty-one per cent of the raw materials used in manu- 

 facturing. A large share of the value of the freight carried by our 

 transportation systems is made up of agricultural products. Two-thirds 

 of our gigantic export trade is in the products of the farm. The enter- 

 prises of meat-packing and flour-milling, which are immediately de- 

 pendent upon the farm for raw material, have grown to enterprises that 

 rank next to iron and steel in gross value of product. Science is being 

 successfully applied to the business of agriculture, and the development 

 of so called agricultural science is one of the marvels of our recent 

 educational history. In fact we are warranted in claiming for agri- , 

 culture as a business a first position among the industries of our country. 

 Moreover, half of our people are still rural people and over a third of 

 our workers are engaged in agriculture. 



But there are tendencies in American agriculture about which we can- 

 not so fully congratulate ourselves. I do not refer particularly to the 

 periodical depressions in agriculture, nor to the trials and tribulations of 

 individual farmers. There are several tendencies, however, which seem 

 to indicate that in spite of our agricultural progress there are serious 

 questions arising which the American farmer must face. In the first 

 place, agriculture is of relatively diminishing importance. In the value 

 of the gross product, manufacturing passed agriculture some fifteen 

 years ago. The agricultural population becomes relatively smaller each 

 decade. These facts in themselves need not alarm us, because it can 

 easily be shown that under certain conditions such facts would really 

 favor the farmer. But we know that in spite of agricultural education, 

 in spite of our public schools, in spite of farm papers, there is still a vast 

 deal of poor farming. We know, too, that in some lines of farming the 

 competition of other countries has been very serious. We also have to 

 face the fact that in many important agricultural communities the farm- 

 ing population is actually diminishing. During the last decade twelve 

 states lost in rural population, and these twelve states included not only 

 some of our eastern states, but such great agricultural sections as Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Kansas. We find also, according to 

 census figures, quite a marked increase in tenant farming, and it is now 

 claimed that 37 per cent of our farms are not worked by the owners. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss the agricultural status 

 in any detail. I have simply suggested these facts in order to emphasize 

 the idea that we really have such a thing as the rural problem. It might 

 be interesting and profitable to discuss the industry of agriculture, if all 

 we had to talk about was the progress and importance of the business, 

 but I am sure that the mere statement of the darker side of the picture, 

 which I have merely hinted at, is sufficient to convince every farmer at 

 least that there is an agricultural problem. It is this matter of poor 

 farming, this question of competition, this pressure of other business, 

 this question about the organization and conduct of our industrial and 

 transporting industries, the gradual decline of farming population, the 

 increase in tenant farming — it is these phenomena, and others like them, 

 that convince us that there are serious questions confronting the Amer- 

 ican farmer. 



I also want to suggest that the American farm problem is in large 



