540 
until after the war, but all preparatory steps 
are being taken so as to avoid delay when 
peace has been restored. There is reason to 
hope that within a short period of years the 
institute may become self-supporting (except, 
of course, as regards the cost of purchasing 
for the nation selected works of outstanding 
merit). But it is necessary to provide for an 
adequate guarantee fund to ensure the stabil- 
ity of the scheme, at least during its initial 
stages, and thus to enable a high standard to 
be rigorously maintained ‘without regard to 
immediate financial necessities. The Board 
of Trade confidently hope that such a guaran- 
tee fund will be forthcoming. 
AGRICULTURE AND THE GOVERNMENT! 
In the field of agriculture we have agencies 
and instrumentalities, fortunately, such as no 
other government in the world can show. 
The Department of Agriculture is undoubt- 
edly the greatest practical and scientific agri- 
cultural organization in the world. Its total 
annual budget of $46,000,000 has been in- 
creased during the last four years more than 
72 per cent. It has a staff of 18,000, including 
a large number of highly trained experts, and 
alongside of it stand the unique land grant 
colleges, which are without example elsewhere, 
and the 69 state and federal experiment sta- 
tions. These colleges and experiment stations 
have a total endowment of plant and equip- 
ment of $172,000,000 and an income of more 
than $35,000,000 with 10,271 teachers, a resident 
student body of 125,000, and a vast additional 
number receiving instructions at their homes. 
Country agents, joint officers of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and of the college, are 
everywhere cooperating with the farmers and 
assisting them. The number of extension 
workers under the Smith-Lever Act under the 
recent emergency legislation has grown to 
5,500 men and women working regularly in the 
various communities and taking to the farmer 
the latest scientific and practical information. 
Alongside these great public agencies stand 
the very effective voluntary organizations 
among the farmers themselves which are more 
1 From President Wilson’s Message to Farmers’ 
Conference at Urbana, Ill., January 31 ,1918. 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIII. No. 1248 
and more learning the best methods of co- 
operation ‘and the best methods of putting to 
practical use the assistance derived from goy- 
ernmental sources. The banking legislation of 
the last two or three years has given the 
farmers access to the great lendable capital of 
the country, and it has become the duty of 
both of the men in charge of the Federal Re- 
serve Banking System and of the Farm Loan 
Banking System to see to it that the farmers 
obtain the credit, both short term and long 
term, to which they are entitled not only, but 
which it is imperatively necessary should be 
extended to them if the present tasks of the 
country are to be adequately performed. Both 
by direct purchase of nitrates and by the es- 
tablishment of plants to produce nitrates, the 
government is doing its utmost to assist in 
the problem of fertilization. The Department 
of Agriculture and other agencies are actively 
assisting the farmers to locate, safeguard and 
secure at cost an adequate supply of sound 
seed. The Department has $2,500,000 avail- 
able for this purpose now and has asked the 
Congress for $6,000,000 more. 
USE OF THE METRIC SYSTEM IN THE 
UNITED STATES? 
More extensive use of the metric system in 
the trade and commerce of the United States 
is recommended in a resolution adopted by the 
United States section of the International 
High Commission, of which Secretary Me- 
Adoo is chairman. 
The commission has regarded this subject 
as of particular importance in the United 
States. It is, of course, unnecessary for the 
United States section to recommend to the 
Latin-American sections of the commission 
anything in connection with the metric sys- 
tem, which is exclusively in use throughout 
Latin America. One of the main obstacles fo 
documentary uniformity as between the United 
States and Latin America is to be found in 
the fact that the United States does not make 
the use of the metric system obligatory, and 
consequently its consular documents have to 
1 Publication authorized by the Treasury De- 
partment. 
