INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 



^ I*" HE retirement of Dr. Eugene Davenport from the deanship of 

 * the College of Agriculture at the close of the present University 

 year will close an era in the agricultural educational history in Illinois. 

 His withdrawal comes at a time of depression in the farming interests 

 of the state. For both these reasons it seemed to me well to call a 

 conference of people interested in agriculture, to review the agricul- 

 tural development of the state from the educational, scientific, and 

 practical viewpoints for the twenty-five years through which Dean 

 Davenport has served, and to try to frame, if possible, the main out- 

 lines of a general policy of agricultural development for the state in 

 the next quarter of a century. 



Accordingly, a call for such a conference was issued on January 

 4, 1922, as follows: 



A CALL FOR A CONFERENCE ON ILLINOIS 

 AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



The present wide depression in agriculture has again called the 

 attention of the country sharply to the fundamental position of agri- 

 culture in the economic life of the people. The condition of the 

 farmer through the past twelve months has impressed upon people's 

 minds more firmly than ever the idea that the prosperity of all of us 

 rests primarily upon the prosperity of those of us who are engaged in 

 agriculture. 



The present condition of depression in agriculture, whatever 

 the immediate causes of that depression, enforces upon our attention 

 two important problems. One is the early relief from the prevalent 

 economic pressure under which the farmers are living. The other 

 is the factors at work to influence and give direction and character to 

 American agriculture in the next quarter of a century. While the 

 present depression is, speaking in a general way, a result of the war, 

 there are reasons for thinking that it is part of a readjustment, not only 

 of temporary conditions, but of conditions which in character are more 

 permanent. In other words, American agriculture probably reached 

 a point within the past decade at which it was to assume a different 

 character from what it had in the past generation. There is ground 

 for the belief that much of our cultivated land under prevalent prac- 



