most intelligent men of our executive committee out upon a pilgrimage to the older stations to see what they were doing. I found that the money that was expended in sending these trustees to such stations as Columbus and Geneva was of incalculable benefit; that it paid the station and the State ten times over.

Mr. INGERSOLL. I made a suggestion once, in a meeting of our board, that at least two members of the board should go eastward and see what was being done in other colleges, that at another time two more should go, and at another time two more, in order that they might become thoroughly informed. I was blandly met by the suggestion of the then president of the board that perhaps I would like to be appointed on such a committee and have my expenses paid. I thanked him very kindly, and told him I had just been on such an expedition, and had paid my own expenses cheerfully, and that I considered I never in my life had invested a like amount of money that paid me so well.

It seems to me that in this matter of farmers' control we must draw the line somewhere. If I invested money in a steam-ship and, knowing 'nothing whatever in regard to its guidance across the sea, employed a captain, mate, and crew for that purpose, it would be fool-hardy for me to mount the deck and attempt to direct how the work should be done. Now take our case. It seems to me the farmers occupy the position of the investor. They employ the experiment station and the skilled help to do the work. They may come to us and say, "We would like you to solve this or that problem." But when they attempt to step into the laboratory and say that this or that method is the one which should be used, it seems to me that they do too much.

Mr. MORROW. The excellent rule adopted by the association prevented my rising to speak a second time until all others had finished. I wish to say in regard to the matter of furnishing information that I hold that the chief work of the agricultural college, or any other college, is to teach that which is known rather than to experiment or investigate; that the chief work of the experiment station is to investigate rather than to answer questions. With that limitation, not putting Illinois at all above any other State, I may say that I do not believe there is an agricultural college or experiment station in the United States which cheerfully and gladly answers more personal letters than we do. We do all that we can. The point I wished to make in my statement was this: If we hold ourselves ready to do the particular thing that Mr. Jones or Mr. Smith wants done, and to answer all questions, we shall get time to do nothing else.

Mr. ELLIS. If you make original investigations and ascertain some facts, you want to get them out to the people, do you not?

Mr. MORROW. Most certainly. I made a remark this afternoon, which, although it was strictly true, I should be very sorry to have quoted:

That in Illinois we grow 100 bushels of corn to the acre without manure. We have grown more than that. We have grown at the rate of 126 bushels to the acre this year. In the best season we have ever known, under the most favorable circumstances, that was true on an experient plot, but it is not our average crop.

[NOTE.-Reports were then rendered for Maine by M. C. Fernald, president of the Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, and by W. H. Jordau, director of the experiment station.-Editors.]

At half past 9 the convention adjourned until Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock.

SECOND DAY.

MORNING SESSION, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1889.

The convention was called to order at 9.51 a. m. by the president. The PRESIDENT. Gentlemen of the convention, we will proceed with the programme.

Mr. J. S. NEWMAN. I was very much entertained last night by the talk of all in the discussion of the question before us. I am anxious that those thoughts be formulated so that we may derive the most benefit from them. I therefore move that the subject-matter of the discussion last night on the question "How to reach farmers" be referred to a special committee of three, whose duty it shall be to compile and formulate the thoughts expressed and indicated in the discussion.

The motion was agreed to.

The PRESIDENT. The chair will appoint as such committee Messrs. Newman, Roberts, and Ellis.

Mr. ATWATER. I have a letter this morning from Professor Brewer, saying that on account of illness in his family he is not able to be present. I make this announcement, as his name was included yesterday in the list of delegates expected.

The PRESIDENT. We are very sorry to hear this, because it was expected he would be here and take part in the discussion. We will now proceed to the order of business às provided by the programme. The question for discussion is, "How can the Department of Agriculture assist the stations?" The discussion is to be opened by Professor Henry, of Wisconsin.

Mr. HENRY. Mr. President, and gentlemen, when I first learned that the Department of Agriculture was expected to have a hand in the station work, my thought was that there was very little use for it, so long as the Department had no executive function; but it seems to me now,

after some talk upon the subject and after a few years' waiting, that although the Department of Agriculture may not be able to positively direct experiment work in the several stations, it has, nevertheless, a large field which it can occupy.

It seems to me that there is a most auspicious beginning in the work as we have already learned. There is to be a large exhibit made at Paris. Some people over there will begin to inquire what this experiment work is, for which the United States Government is appropriating so much money. The Department of Agriculture has attempted to answer that question, and the brief giving an account of my station that came back to me the other day was a surprise to me, and a surprise largely from the fact that it gave so much light on the subject. That brings me to the first thing I will mention as to the position of the Department. It seems to me eminently proper that some one at this time should write up the past history of the experiment stations, or the experiment farms, where they existed under that name, making a note of their work, their organization, their date of beginning, and such other facts as can be gathered.

But we want more than that. There are already some three hundred workers in our experiment stations in America. Take this Paris report for the basis and enlarge it until it makes a printed report of a couple of hundred pages, in which there shall be a statement of the organization. That should be one of the first works, it seems to me-the writing up, if I may so word it, of the stations as they exist to day. It will pass into history and become exceedingly valuable as a historical document. The list of officers that this book will give us should be printed by itself, published and distributed separately. For instance, I do not believe in sending to the State of Michigan a bunch of our station bulletins, or a bunch of reports for the director's distribution. I should rather, when bulletins come to us from Michigan, that there be one sent to the director and another to the professor of chemistry. It is not always easy to get them properly distributed, and very often a bulletin will fail to reach the officer for whom it is intended, if it depends upon the director to get it to him. Already some of you are short on bulletins. Some of the editions are exhausted and sets are incomplete, although we are not yet a year old. When each man is obliged to watch his own files he will be apt to use a good deal of care. With a complete list of officers we can arrange our mailing sheets, and the Department of Agriculture can assist us in that line. Let us send our reports and bulletins to each officer individually.

Al

In the next place, lists of books can be made out and sent to us. ready some work has been done by a committee, but the Department of Agriculture stands higher and looks farther than we do.

How much can the Department assist us in experimental work? Here we reach very questionable ground. Much depends upon the individual put in charge there. If he be a mere clerk, even though he be

a good clerk, we have not much use for him beyond the things I have mentioned. But if he be a man thoroughly imbued with the agricultural spirit of the times, one who appreciates the benefits of reaching the multitude, there is much he can do. While our bulletins are fragmentary, having a local tinge, this person in Washington, if he be a man of broad, scientific training, can add to our work what he may get from other countries, and occasionally, at least, issue a bulletin or a report, which will be of great benefit to the masses.

Let me illustrate. Three farmers out of four thoroughly believe that they hoe or cultivate corn to keep down the weeds, and do their work wholly with this object in view, never once supposing it to be largely for the conservation of moisture. There is a large amount of information gathered in regard to the conservation of moisture in the soil. If that were written up simply for the Wisconsin farmers, it would be a work of very great value, but it would be one-sided. Why can not the Agricultural Department at Washington appoint a man, the best man in the country or in Europe, to write up the subject and pay him for it? Let a large edition be scattered over the country, a part of it made especially for the newspapers.

There is still higher work. If I can see into the future, the period of agricultural progress which we are now entering upon will be spoken of, as time goes on, as the most remarkable period of scientific development the world has yet seen. The time will come when the great minds of Johns Hopkins, Yale, Harvard, and Cornell will gladly take up the problems of agriculture and base their reputations upon their solution. This being true, why should not the Government get these men to write monographs upon different scientific agricultural subjects? You may ask, why should the Government do it instead of individuals and universities, as in the past? Because agricultural science has a financial bearing, a directness of contact with the people, that astronomy and the other sciences do not have, that languages have never had. Geology comes nearest to the people, as it has a financial bearing upon coal, iron, or salt, and the people want the geological reports. But the agricultural reports should be in the library of everybody who has any thing to do with the soil. And who has not? We do not expect these reports or monographs to come out with great rapidity, for they should be worthy of going into the libraries of the stations and to the agricultural newspapers, as well as into the hands of all men who are progressive. My friends, I see this thing coming, and if we work together and pull together we shall succeed. Already the experiment-station enterprise has received over half a million dollars by direct Government appropriation, and the opportunities growing out of this appropriation are simply enormous. The Department at Washington, while it has no direct connection with the stations, can foster and nurture each and every one of them. When we think of the magnitude of this work it ought to inspire us, it ought to make every one of us sober, thoughtful, earnest

men. No one ought to enter upon it without asking himself whether he is called to it. The man that goes into it simply as a money-making scheme will find himself most ignominiously lost in this deep work that is to be done. A shallow man in theology is soon lost. Only deep, thoughtful men have made a record there. We are just about entering the most interesting science, the most recondite work ever undertaken, for, as science goes on, its problems become more and more difficult. We must train ourselves in the school of patience. While we are writing for the people, while we are trying to get the people to realize that this work is for their benefit, we ought to have in mind the larger and deeper work in which the Agricultural Department at Washington is to play so large a part. [Applause.]

Mr. COOKE, of Vermont. Mr. President, every word that has been said by the last speaker can be most heartily seconded by us all.

I wish to refer to what he said with regard to sending out bulletins to the individuals of the station. Our station has done so from the beginning, as far as we could get the names of employés from station bulletins. We should be glad to see a directory come out, so that we could be sure that our bulletins went to every officer and employé of the stations. We should also be very glad to receive bulletins and reports from the other stations in the same way. Our employés are at three different places.

Professor Henry gives my ideas exactly in regard to the monographs that should be prepared by the Department of Agriculture; but, as he said, a monograph on any subject requires a great deal of time and a great deal of work.

There is another work which the Department of Agriculture can do for us which is principally clerical. I refer to the compilation of our bulletins and reports. It does not require great scientific training, and yet will save station workers an immense amount of time, and very likely prevent duplication of work.

This same work should be extended to apply to the work of the sta tions on the other side of the water. Many of us are not able to read the foreign languages with facility. A yearly compendium of the work done there would be a most excellent hand-book for the employés of the various stations.

Another of the things the Department of Agriculture can do is to act as a bureau of information. Hardly a day passes when there does not come up some question we can not answer. We have a conviction that the knowledge we want exists somewhere in literature, but we have not all the literature. The Agricultural Department has an immense library. We want the privilege, and it will be a very great one, of feeling that we are not imposing on anybody if we write to the Department and ask to be put on the track of finding what we wish. We may want only the name of the publisher of a book, or that of the manufacturer of an article of chemical apparatus, or the reference to certain