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knowledge of agricultural engineering than can now be obtained in our land-grant 
colleges. In fact, the profession of agricultural engineer, so prominent in Europe, is 
almost unknown in this country. Very little has been done in this country to 
develop a satisfactory drainage practice. The principles of drainage are understood 
by but few, and instruction in our colleges is meager and far from being up to date. 
Drainage laws are far from satisfactory and need to be modified, because this work 
is beyond the means of individuals and must be carried out by organizations of large 
numbers of landowners associated under some definite le^al plan. Careful work 
must be done in the study of the practical side of this subject, in determining the 
most effective methods of constructing ditches, in determining the kind of underdrains 
to be used, the depth at which they should be laid, the distance apart, etc. 
We believe that in irrigation and drainage there is a field for cooperation between 
the Department of Agriculture and the experiment stations and colleges which ought 
to be more fully utilized, the Department of Agriculture coordinating the work of 
the stations and aiding them in carrying out original researches. 
Associated with drainage and irrigation is another branch of hydraulic agriculture 
whose importance has not been properly realized. .This is the terracing and draining 
of hillside farms in order to protect them from the destructive effects of erosion. It 
is an unfortunate fact that much of the activity of the last century in subduing and 
settling this country has been of a destructive character. Forests have been cut 
from the headwaters of streams; the hillsides which they protect have been exposed 
to the erosion of storms, and the evils of the work done by rainfall have been aggra- 
vated by the planting of these lands to crops which require clean culture, such as 
corn, tobacco, and cotton, which provide no binding material for the soil. As a 
result, much of the accumulated fertility has been carried down into the channels of 
streams, thus leaving thousands of acres of what was fertile land not many years ago 
scarred with gullies and practically abandoned to weeds and brush. We must stop 
this destructive style of farming, if we are to maintain the prosperity and provide an 
adequate food supply for many sections in the eastern half of the United States. To 
find out how best to do this and to encourage farmers to begin action is a work 
which both the Department of Agriculture and the different State experiment sta- 
tu >ns should take up at once. The hill lands of France, Germany, and England are as 
fertile as they were a century ago, although many of them are devoted to cultivated 
crops. The credit for these results is due to the existence of a body of trained agri- 
cultural engineers, a class of professional men not now existing in the United States. 
The time has come when our colleges should lend themselves actively to this sort of 
training. The opportunities for employment in irrigation, drainage, and hillside 
protection are sufficiently great to make it an attractive course to young men having 
aptitude for such work, and it is the field to which we must look for the largest 
results in the extension of our productive area and in the conservation of the fertility 
of much of the land now being farmed. 
Another branch of rural engineering is the construction of country roads. Increase 
in population in our cities has resulted in larger areas being devoted to the production 
of perishable products — such as milk, garden truck, and fruit. The marketing of these 
has greatly increased the travel on country roads. The character of these products 
is such as to demand quick transportation, thus rendering it necessary that the roads 
should be hard and smooth, and this is being emphasized by the fact that the auto- 
mobile and traction engine require a better roadway than the horse and cart. To 
build roads suited to the conditions of modern life, especially in the vicinity of 
cities, requires a knowledge of engineering wholly different from that of a quarter of 
a century ago, and demands not only that the courses of instruction be strengthened, 
but that facilities be provided for experimentation regarding the best materials 
to use. 
It is believed, however, that the greatest opportunities for students and for the 
improvement of the general agricultural practice of this country will be found in the 
systematic study of the manufacture and use of agricultural machinery. This coun- 
try is the greatest maker and user of farm machinery in the world, and it is due 
largely to this fact that we have become the most prosperous agricultural country in 
the world. It has enabled the farmer to pay the high prices for labor created by 
the competition of our manufactories and has taken away from farm life much of 
the drudgery of manual toil and made it in the best sense an intellectual pursuit 
Improvements in machinery have brought about a steady reduction in the cost of 
production, notwithstanding the steady rise in wages. The self-binder enables one 
man to accomplish the work done by four men with the best machinery in use at 
the close of the civil war. The check-Vow corn planter and the two-horse cultivator 
have, according to a recent, writer, lessened by more than half the labor cost of pro- 
ducing a bushel of Indian corn. Machinery has enabled the eastern farmer to adopt 
intensive farming. The windmill pumps the water used in the dairy, the centrifugal 
