260 
vious that no other policy than that based upon 
race-appreciation is either just or stable. 
Pui AmswortH Mrans 
196 BEACON STREET, 
Boston, Mass. 
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF AGRICUL- 
TURAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 
AND ITS ROLE IN HELPING TO 
WIN THE WAR! 
Tue United States has, in its Federal De- 
partment of Agriculture and state (land-grant) 
colleges of agriculture, a system of agricul- 
tural research and education which was estab- 
lished more than 50 years ago and which 
reaches every part of the country and effec- 
tively deals with every phase of agriculture. 
It is worth noting that the national founda- 
tions of these two great agencies for the better- 
ment of agriculture were laid in another 
period of great national stress. 
The act of Congress creating the Federal 
Department of Agriculture was signed by 
Abraham Lincoln on May 15, 1862, while the 
Civil War was in progress. On July 2 of the 
same year he approved the so-called land-grant, 
or Morrill, act, giving the proceeds from the 
sale of certain allotments of the public land 
to each state and territory for “the endow- 
ment, support, and maintenance of at least 
one college where the leading object shall be, 
without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to 
teach such branches of learning as are re- 
lated to agriculture and the mechanic arts... 
in order to promote the liberal and practical 
education of the industrial classes in the 
several pursuits and professions in life.” 
The national system of agriculture, educa- 
tion and research thus established has been 
greatly developed by subsequent legislation, 
notably the acts providing for agricultural ex- 
periment stations in each state and for co- 
operative extension work in agriculture and 
home economics. Many other important and 
highly significant laws for the betterment of 
rural life have been placed on the statute 
1 Weekly News Letter, Department of Agricul- 
ture. 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1237 
books within the past few years, including 
especially the cotton-futures act, the United 
States grain-standards act, the Federal ware- 
house act, and the Federal aid road act. All 
these measures are administered by the De- 
partment of Agriculture and they are achiey- 
ing, in marked degree, the purposes contem- 
plated by their framers. The federal reserve 
act, the farm-loan act, and the federal yvoca- 
tional education act also constitute an im- 
portant part of the legislative program for the 
improvement of rural conditions and the de- 
velopment of agriculture. Thus the nation 
was well prepared along agricultural lines to 
deal promptly and effectively with the emer- 
geney problems that have arisen since the 
United States entered the war. - It is not ex- 
travagant to say that this nation had agencies 
working for the betterment of rural life and 
agriculture which, in point of personnel and 
effectiveness, exceed those of any other three 
nation in the world combined. 
The land-grant colleges and experiment sta- 
tions are without parallel. They are 67 in 
number, have a total valuation of endowment, 
plant, and equipment of $195,000,000; an in- 
come of more than $45,000,000, with 5,900 
teachers; a resident student body of over 
75,000, and a vast number receiving extension 
instruction. Their great ally, the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, is unquestionably the 
greatest practical and scientific agricultural 
organization in the world. It has a staff of 
more than 20,000 people, many of them highly 
trained experts, and a budget of approximately 
$65,000,000. 
The graduate and collegiate instruction and 
the research work inaugurated by these agen- 
cies take rank with the best in the world. As 
the result, a large corps of leaders and spe- 
cialists, capable of dealing efficiently not only 
with the vital question of agricultural pro- 
duction, but also with important war problems 
not directly connected with agriculture, has 
been trained. Through the educational work 
of the colleges a great impulse has been given 
to vocational training in agriculture and 
through the research work of the Federal De- 
partment and the experiment stations a great 
