HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 457 
eo 
send out a report. The secretary of the New York State Grange said 
yesterday at Albany at a hearing before the finance committee in my 
presence that this university extension work of the Cornell college of 
agriculture was of incalculable good to the farmers of the State, and 
because he and his friends 5 aap it'so much he was there to ask 
on behalf of the grange of New York, that the State legislature should 
appropriate $250,000 for a hall of agriculture for Cornell University. 
Let me give you the figures as to the numbers we are carrying on this 
extension work. They are as follows: 
Harmeéis’ reading Courses. soci ccete ss. Ssanawel Meesactedeutuesessuanane nck 
Farmers wives’ reading course -....-..-.-.---..---2-206 rea alee ta ape. ceases eee 
Junior naturalist clubs, 467; members 
Junior gardeners .-...---.-2-.----4--2------ 
Teachers in home nature-study course 
So that we give instruction to 44,337 persons throughout the State of 
New York, exclusive of the 276 students now in the agricultural col- 
lege and 85 in the veterinary college, and all this instruction, whether 
given at the university or throughout the State, is absolutely free. 
We have never charged a cent at Cornell University for instruction 
in agriculture since the university was opened and we are not charg- 
ing anything to-day. 
Perhaps I might add for the information and for the interest of the 
New York gentlemen on the committee—I hope the others will excuse 
me for referring to a matter that is primarily of interest to our own 
State—that while we give free agricultural instruction to these students, 
we also give free instruction in all departments of the university to 
four students annually from every assembly district, 600 persons in 
all, so that Cornell is to-day giving free instruction to over 900 students 
at the university. Those 600 are selected from the inhabitants of each 
assembly district on competitive examinations held by the State super- 
intendent of education, and I do not know who the winners are until 
they come to me and hand me their certificates of ae aan 
*“*Should be doing the best work-of any institution in the land, yet 
never did anything.” Now, I submit, Mr. Chairman, that we have 
done something; nay, that we have done good work. 
I appeal to the number and quality of the experiments conducted by 
our Cornell investigators, and I appeal to the instruction given to the 
large number of students who have patronized our agricultural college 
in rebuttal of the statement made before you, and if further refutation 
is needed of that statement I will mention one other fact. Here isa 
report on our college of agriculture signed_by the president of every 
agricultural society in the State of New York. It speaks for our 
State Dairymen’s Association, our State Agricultural Society, our New 
York State Grange, our State Breeders’ Association, our Western New 
York Horticultural Society, our State Fruit Growers’ Association, our 
State Sheep Breeders’ Association, our Shropshire ee Association, 
our State Association of Beekeepers’ Societies, our State Poultry 
Society, our State Association of County Agricultural Societies, our 
Patrons of Industry, and others. ; : : 
Here is a report indorsed by these agricultural societies in our State, 
commending the work we are doing in the Cornell College of Agricul- 
ture, and asking the State of New York to grant the college large 
