IN THE FIELD OF AGRICULTURE we have agen- 

 cies and instrumentalities, fortunately, such as no 

 other Government in the world can show. The De- 

 partment of Agriculture is undoubtedly the greatest 

 practical and scientific agricultural organization in 

 the world. Its total annual budget of $46,000,000 has 

 been increased 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 Fed- 

 eral experiment stations. These colleges and experi- 

 ment stations have a total endowment of plant and 

 equipment of $172,000,000 and an income of more 

 than $35,000,000, with 10,271 teachers, a resident stu- 

 dent body of 125,000, and a vast additional number 

 receiving instruction at their homes. County agents, 

 joint officers of the Department of Agriculture and 

 of the colleges, are everywhere cooperating with the 

 farmers and assisting them. The number of exten- 

 sion workers under the Smith-Lever Act and 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 sci- 

 entific and practical information. Alongside these 

 great public agencies stand the very effective volun- 

 tary organizations among the farmers themselves, 

 which are more and more learning the best methods 

 of cooperation and the best methods of putting to 

 practical use the assistance derived from govern- 

 mental 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 both of the men in charge of the 

 Federal-reserve banking system and of the farm-loan 

 banking system to see to it that the farmers obtain 

 the credit, both short 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 estab- 

 lishment of plants to produce nitrates, the Govern- 

 ment 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- — From President Wilson's 

 Message to the Farmers' Conference at Urbana, III., 

 January 31, 1918. 



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