New York AGRICULTURAL IEXPERIMENT STATION. 15 
agricultural colleges have established extension departments and 
at the last convention of the Association of Agricultural Colleges 
and Experiment Stations, the constitution of the Association was 
amended to provide for a section to be devoted to the considera- 
tion of extension work. It is practically certain that Congress 
will be asked to further endow the agricultural colleges in order 
that these institutions may greatly enlarge their activities in the 
popular education of the agricultural masses. All of this effort 
has for its purpose, of course, the promotion of larger intelligence 
on. the part of farmers and, as a consequence, a higher and more 
productive type of agriculture. 
Recently several gentlemen prominent in industrial affairs 
have wisely and opportunely discussed in a public way the 
economic future of this country from the standpoint of its agri- 
cultural efficiency. They have called attention to the low yield 
of staple products in many parts of the United States, to the ap- 
proaching balance between our production of food stuffs and our 
home needs and point to the time when, unless our agricultural 
methods improve, we will not produce the bread we consume. 
It is undoubtedly true that the maximum productive capacity 
of-the farms in the older states has not been maintained, even ap- 
proximately. It is equally true that by proper methods the fer- 
tility of run-down farms may be restored and through better farm 
practice the average acreage production increased in New York 
by a large percentage, even doubled. Granting, then, the economic 
necessity of better farming and the possibility of attaining it, we 
are confronted with the question as to how this is to be brought 
about and what relation this institution has to the effort. 
Long association with the effort of agricultural betterment 
generally convinces an intelligent observer that the practice on 
any given farm will not rise above the level of the farmer’s capa- 
city and intelligence, and that even in our most prominent agri- 
cultural states there are thousands of farms where improved 
methods may not reasonably be expected because the owners are 
