77 



a teaching stafT of 5,(;oo ami a resident stiKKiit Iiody of o\-er 

 75,000. 



On May 15, 1862, Abraluun Lincoln signed the act, creating 

 the great Department of Agriculture. In the 57 years inter- 

 vening, there has never been a time when the country at large 

 has been so appreciative, as at present, of the value of this 

 department, nor so cheerfully contemplates the expenditure of 

 approximately $65,000,000 for its supporting annual budget, to 

 maintain its staff of more than 20,000 people. 



Furthermore, on May 8, 1919, there was enacted the Ex- 

 tension Act, which provides that all extension and demonstration 

 work shall be coordinated and carried on cooperatively by the 

 state colleges of agriculture and the Federal Department of 

 Agriculture. After 1922, there will be available approximately 

 ii58,7oo,ooo for a the support of this Act. The field work in each 

 state is supervised by a director of extension and is done by (i) 

 men county agents, (2) women county agents, (3) boys' and 

 girls' clubs, (4) corps of specialists.* 



If, as Professor Amesf and many others contend, the war was 

 really won by science, either pure or applied, then there is an 

 everlasting debt which humanity owes to the men of science: 

 the physicians, engineers, sanitarians, meteorologists, geologists, 

 botanists, zoologists, physicists and chemists. Their service 

 sustained the world at the time of its greatest need. What I 

 want to emphasize is that the careers of these men and women 

 were made possible to them and to the country by their courses 

 in the high school period of their education, when they were 

 self-discovered and when they unquestionably got the trend for 

 their particular vocation. 



Shall we not continue to need trained botanists, not to speak 

 of other biologists? Let us keep wide open the door marked 

 "Biologic Science" and let all the students of our high schools 

 have an unobstructed view of whatever perspectives and vistas 

 they can see. 



This then is what I have attempted to present: 



* Weekly News Letter of Department of Agriculture, 

 t Science, Oct. 25, 1918. 



