THE UNIVERSITY AND THE FARM 



DAVID KINLEY, President of the University of Illinois 



O ONE can turn his attention to the subject of agriculture 

 in the United States without thinking at once of its condi- 

 tion at the present time. Therefore, when a conference 

 on agriculture is called it is inevitable that people should 

 expect a discussion of the present agricultural depression. 

 This, however, was not the purpose of the conference called 

 at the University. The purpose was rather to consider the direction 

 or trend of the development of agriculture in Illinois in the next de- 

 cade or two, with special consideration of the part that the University 

 College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station can 

 or may play in that development. In any conference on the general 

 subject of agriculture today, three problems present themselves: the 

 problem of the present depression ; that of the improvement of exist- 

 ing agricultural practises, technically and economically ; and the prob- 

 lem of the future agricultural methods. As indicated above, a fourth 

 point in the present conference is the relation of the University to 

 that progress. 



Altho this conference was not called for the purpose of discussing 

 the present depression, I may be pardoned if I turn aside a moment to 

 mention it. We have had all sorts of explanations given and all sorts 

 of remedies proposed. Most of the explanations and remedies have 

 no relation to the subject. Most of the explanations do not explain, 

 and most of the proposed remedies would make the situation worse. 

 In fact, no one can give an adequate explanation of the situation or an 

 adequate remedy for its improvement. It is curious that in an age 

 when the medical profession is relying less and less on drugs for the 

 cure of disease and more and more upon the healthy, slow processes 

 of nature, the social doctors are facing the other way and relying more 

 and more on quack remedies through legislation than on the operation 

 of natural economic and social forces. 



We all agree, of course, that the present situation is the result 

 of the war, whatever the words may mean. It can be established, I 

 think, that not only did the processes of the war take out of cultiva- 

 tion vast areas of land formerly used to produce food, but it also 

 reduced the consuming power, that is, the purchasing ability, of the 

 world. Even this statement needs explanation, but this is not the 

 place for it. Moreover, the demands of war gave a direction to ag- 

 ricultural production, in this country at any rate, which distorted 



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