INTRODUCTION. 



Agriculture in the United States is advancing rapidly, and no- 

 where is there manifest more activity or more wide-spread interest than 

 in New York. This general activity is doubtless due largely to in- 

 creased cost of living and better returns from farm products. Farm 

 lands in the state are increasing in value and there is every evidence 

 that we are entering a period of great agricultural development and 

 prosperity. While New York is perhaps not so wholly dependent on its 

 agricultural interests as some of the western and southern states, still 

 it ranks fourth among the states in the value of its agricultural 

 products, having a total value in 1899, the last census year, of $245,- 

 270,600. Agriculture will always be the principal industry in the 

 greater part of the state and the foundation of its prosperity. 



With the renewed interest in agriculture, increasing demands are 

 being made on the educational institutions of the state to provide 

 training in agricultural subjects. Farmers want their sons and daugh- 

 ters to take up farming as their life work fitly prepared for it. Farm- 

 ers themselves are demanding training in advanced scientific methods. 

 City men and boys in ever increasing numbers desire to go on farms 

 and are looking for places to secure the necessary training. The state 

 has adopted the policy of providing institutions where such education 

 can be obtained, having established a college of agriculture and three 

 special schools of agriculture, besides having begun the introduction of 

 agricultural studies into the common schools and high schools. The 

 state is now facing the question as to whether it will develop its existing 

 institutions to meet their immediate demands, or whether the progress 

 shall be arrested. The leadership in this forward movement should 

 rest with the State College of Agriculture. It must dispense informa- 

 tion and rouse the people by putting before them better methods and 

 higher purposes. It must find new truth and carry the discoveries of 

 investigators to the people on the farms. It -must train teachers for 

 the teaching of agriculture in the secondary and high schools. Its work 

 must be constructive and it must point the way. 



The New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, 

 through its investigations and bulletins, its lectures and demonstrations 

 with farmers, and its large number of students receiving instruction, is 



