{{TN 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 undoubtedly the greatest practical and sci- 

 entific agricultural organization in the world. Its total an- 

 nual 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 

 Federal experiment stations. These colleges and experiment 

 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 student body of 125,000, and a 

 vast additional number receiving instruction at their homes. 

 County agents, joint officers of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture and of the colleges, are everywhere cooperating with 

 the farmers and assisting them. The number of extension 

 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 scientific and practical information. 

 Alongside these great public agencies stand the very effec- 

 tive voluntary organizations among the farmers themselves, 

 which are more and more learning the best methods of co- 

 operation and the best methods of putting to practical use 

 the assistance derived from governmental sources. The 

 banking legislation of the last two or three years has given 

 the farmers access to the great lendable capital of the coun- 

 try, 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 ex- 

 tended to them if the present tasks of the country are to be 

 adequately performed. Both by direct purchase of nitrates 

 and by the establishment 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, safe- 

 guard, and secure at cost an adequate supply of sound seed. 

 The department has $2,500,000 available for this purpose 

 now and has asked the Congress for $6,000,000 more." — From 

 President Wilson's Message to Farmers in Conference at Urbana, 

 III, January 81, 1918. 



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