i86 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



tion in rural districts has gone forward at a 

 marvelously rapid pace. Nor is it exaggerating 

 to say that the movements named are re-creating 

 farm life. 



During this same period, there has been an 

 almost equally wonderful advance in the means 

 of agricultural education. Just twenty years 

 ago the experiment-station system of this 

 country was established. It took ten years for 

 the stations to organize their work and to gain 

 the confidence of the farmers. At present 

 however, they are looked upon with great favor 

 by the farming class and are doing a magnificent 

 work. Their function is that of research chiefly, 

 although they attempt some control service, such 

 as inspection of fertilizers, stock foods, etc. In 

 research they aim both to study the more intricate 

 scientific questions that relate to agriculture and 

 to carry on experiments that are of more obvious 

 and more immediate practical application to 

 existing conditions in the various states. There 

 is one of these stations in each state and territory, 

 besides a number of stations supported by state 

 funds. The Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington has also developed during the last 

 ten years until it is performing very large service 

 for agriculture. Its annual expenditures aggre- 



