THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 



Three great lines of work 



The colleges of agriculture have three 

 proper lines of work : the regular or ordi- 

 nary teaching; the discovery of truth, or 

 research; the extending of their work to 

 all the people. I mention these in the order 

 in which they have been recognized. These 

 colleges are founded on the Land-grant 

 Act of 1862; the experiment station side 

 was added in 1887; the extension side is 

 not yet regularly recognized by Congress, 

 although it soon must be acknowledged, 

 but it is established in most of the colleges 

 to some degree. 



All progress and increased efficiency is 

 conditioned on knowledge of the facts and 

 laws of nature. It is impossible to have a 

 good college of agriculture without careful 

 research work as its basis. Therefore, 

 every effort must be made to secure able 

 investigators and to enable them to pursue 

 their work with perfect freedom, and not 

 to hold them rigidly merely to problems of 

 immediately so-called practical impor- 

 tance. 



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