DECEMBER, 1909.] 



537 



Miscellaneous. 



POPULAR AGRICULTURAL 

 INSTRUCTION IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



By E. A. Coddington. 



(From the Philippine Agricultural 

 Review, Vol. II., No. 7, July, 1909.1 



Agricultural Exhibit Trains. 

 For some years past it has been a 

 custom in several of the Western States 

 for the leading railroad companies to 

 build and equip railroad cars, and for 

 the State officials or promotion organiza- 

 tions to fill them Avith exhibits of the 

 agricultural products from the different 

 parts of a State to demonstrate the 

 natural richness of the soils and the 

 country for the purpose of inducing 

 settlers and others to purchase lands in 

 the State and develop its agricultural 

 resources. These cars, with attendants, 

 lecturers, and demonstrators, sometimes 

 three or four of them together, having 

 been thoroughly ad vertised in the section 

 to be visited, have been sent over all 

 the principal railroad lines into the 

 North and South Central, the Eastern, 

 and the New England States, where 

 they were sidetracked in the principal 

 cities and exhibited their agricultural 

 productions, while lectures were given 

 and printed matter distributed with the 

 purpose of giving the people in the more 

 thickly settled sections of the United 

 States an adequate idea of the wonder- 

 ful agricultural possibilities in such 

 States as Washington, Idaho, Oregon, 

 Utah, and California. 



In some cases boats have been equipped 

 with similar exhibits and sent from port 

 to port where they have remained 

 several days at a time exhibiting the 

 products of the particular State or 

 section which they represent ; in like 

 manner lectures and descriptions of the 

 country and its possibilities were given, 

 and much printed and illustrated matter 

 distributed. These methods of popular 

 instruction or advertising have been 

 carried on for years by various Western 

 States, and have given a wonderful 

 stimulus to the development of agri- 

 culture west of the Mississippi River and 

 along the Pacific Coast. 



Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Demonstration Trains. 



In the March number of the Rural 

 Californian we find the following notice 

 of a special agricultural and horticul- 

 tural demonstration train :— 



The Southern Pacific Railway Com- 

 pany will operate a special agricultural 

 68 



and horticultural demonstration train. 

 The University of California and the 

 State Horticultural Commission, through 

 scientific and practical men, will have 

 delivered, at stopping points, lectures 

 on methods to be pursued in increasing 

 the value of agriculture, horticulture, 

 live-stock raising, dairying, poultry 

 raising and kindred industries. The 

 equipment of the train will include two 

 ears containing valuable and compre- 

 hensive exhibits to be used in illustrating 

 and demonstrating the points brought 

 forth in the discussions. There will also 

 be a coach for use as a lecture room in 

 towns where no hall is available. Every 

 person in the sections visited, who is 

 interested, is earnestly invited to attend 

 these meetings. Where the place of 

 meeting is elsewher e than in the train, it 

 will be made known locally through the 

 railway agents, newspapers, and other 

 sources of information. 



The schedule and speakers are as 

 follows :— Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, 

 president of the University of California; 

 Prof. E. J. Wickson, director of the 

 experiment station ; Prof. W. T. Clark, 

 superintendent of the department of 

 university extension in agriculture ; 

 Prof. G. W- Shaw, of the cereal depart- 

 ment ; Prof. R. H. Loughridge, soils and 

 fertilizers ; Prof. E. W. Major, depart- 

 ment of animal industry ; Prof. W. B. 

 Herms, medical entomolgy ; Prof. H. M. 

 Quayle, entomology ; Dr. C. M. Haring, 

 veterinary department ; Prof. E. B. 

 Babcock, department of plant pathology ; 

 Mrs. M. E. Sherman, viticulture, table 

 grapes ; Prof. R. E. Smith, southern Cali- 

 fornia pathological laboratory, Whittier ; 

 H. J. Ramsey aud T. F. Hunt, citrus 

 experiment station, Riverside ; J. E. Neff, 

 Anaheim, conductor of farmers' institutes 

 in southern California ; J. W. Jefferey, 

 State horticultural commissioner ; E. M. 

 Ehrhorn, deputy horticultural com- 

 missioner ; E. K. Carnes, superintendent 

 of State irrsectary ; Frederick Masky, 

 fumigation expert. 



According to the proposed schedule, 

 the train will leave Los Angelos in the 

 morning of March 10. The places to be 

 visited and the hours at which meetings 

 are to be held in those places will be 

 as follows :— 



" Wednesday, March 10.— Pasadena, 

 9-30 to 11-30 a.m.; San Marino, 1 to 2 p.m.; 

 Arcadia, 2-10 to 3-10 p.m.; Monrovia, 3-30 

 to 4-20 p.m.; Duarte 4-30 to 5-30 p.m., 

 also 7-30 to 9-30 p.m. 



Thursday, March 11.— San Gabriel, 9 to 

 11 a.m.; Monte, 11-15 a.m. to 12-15 p.m., 

 also 1-15 to 2-15 p.m.; Loudon, 3 to 5 p.m., 

 also 7-30 to 9-30 p.m. 



