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pended in fertilizers, but the A'gricitltural Department is of 
opinion that one-third of this was wasted for lack of knowledge 
as to how to use it. 
Careful crop rotation is essential because it has been found 
that the remains of one crop have a poisonous effect upon the 
next crop if it is of the same plant, but such remains do not inter- 
fere with the normal production of a different plant. Then a 
kind of crop may and should be selected to follow which will 
renew that element in the soil which the first crop exhausted. 
Then there is the organization of the farm on plaiji business 
principles by which the buildings and the machinery are so ar- 
ranged as to make the movement of crops and food and animals 
as easy and economical as possible. A stud}^ as to the character 
of the soil and the crops best adapted to the soil ; the crops to be 
cised in rotation for the purpose of strengthening the soil — all 
these are questions that address themselves to a scientific and 
professional agriculturist, and which all farmers are bound to 
know if the product per acre is to be properly increased. We 
have every reason to hope, from the forces now making toward 
the education and information of the farmer, as to the latest 
results in scientific agriculture, that the country will have the ad- 
vantage of improvement in our farming along the proper lines. 
Further agricultural development is to be found in the breed- 
ing of proper plants for the making of the best crops, while the 
growth of live stock is made much more profitable both to the 
owner and to the public by improving the breed and the infusion 
of the blood of the best stock. 
The improvement in agricultural education goes on apace. All 
the States are engaged in spending money to educate the coming 
farmer, and this system is being extended so that now we have 
the consolidated rural school, the farmers' high school, and the 
agricultural college, and one who intends to become a farmer is 
introduced to his profession soon after he learns to read and 
write, and he continues his study of it until he graduates from 
his college, and applies for a place upon the farm. 
The land-grant colleges established by the Federal Govern- 
ment have vindicated the policy in making the grant. Now the 
department employs 11,000 persons, many of whom are engaged 
in conducting experiment stations and spreading information all 
over the country. The cooperation between the State agricul- 
tural school system and the Federal Government's publicity 
bureau and experimental work is as close and fine as we could 
ask. It is difficult to justify the expenditure of money for agri- 
cultural purposes in the Agricultural Department with a view to 
its publication for use of the farmers, or to make grants to 
schools for farmers, on any constitutional theory that will not 
justify the Government in spending money for any kind of educa- 
tion the country over ; but the welfare of the people is so depend- 
ent on improved agricultural conditions that it seems wise to use 
