CORN DAY 



Friday Morning, December 5, 1913, 10 o'Clock. 

 Council Chamber, City Hall. 



Chairman, Clarence Sears Kates, Esquire, of the Philadelphia Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture. 



Mr. Kates, after calling the conference to order, made the following 

 remarks : 



With the enormous amount of extremely valuable information on 

 agriculture collected by state institutions and our national Department of 

 Agriculture, a constant effort has been made to render the data available 

 to the man on the farm. Publicity in general was comparatively easy — 

 but to get the information to the particular individual requiring it was the 

 problem. A number of methods were worked out; some were adaptations 

 of older means, some quite new. 



The bulletins of the state colleges, state experimental stations. State 

 Department of Agriculture and our National Department, even city 

 -dwellers are familiar with; the farm journals and the general dailies were 

 of course used, and will always be invaluable. 



The next step was to send a properly informed man to lecture on his 

 specialty at some chosen locality, the farmers of a neighborhood choosing 

 the subject and the College or State Department of Agriculture providing 

 the man. 



A further advance was made when the agricultural educational train 

 was evolved, an important point in its favor being that even if a farming 

 neighborhood had not requested information — or halls were unavailable — 

 the train itself was the lecture room, and advance notice was spread broad- 

 cast that on a certain day the train with a staff of lecturers would be on 

 such and such a siding. This obviated waiting for initiative — and that 

 was indeed an advance, as lack of leadership is a great drawback in rural 

 progress as yet. But a serious disadvantage to all these sincere efforts 

 was the lack of knowledge as to the conditions peculiar to the locality, 

 limiting therefore the recommendations of the lecturers or experts to general 

 directions; whereas if they could know the specific needs they could 

 largely recommend a specific practice. 



What was to be done? 



The answer is found in what is termed the Farm Bureau and its 

 County Agent. And too, it is at that point where the interests of the city 



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