The institutions of research are our experiment
stations and United States Department of Agriculture. Their work may be
likened to the plowing of the field. They strive to know how nature
works, and how man can make use of her laws in the growing of plant and
animal.

The next thing is to teach. The farmer too must know. Knowledge confined
to the scientist has little practical use. It is the farmer who can use
it. Moreover, new teachers must be trained, new experimenters equipped,
and leaders in every direction prepared. So we have agricultural
colleges and schools. If experiment is to be likened to plowing, the
work of the schools may be compared to sowing and cultivating.

Agricultural colleges have been in existence in America almost fifty
years. Their careers have been both inspiring and disappointing. They
have had to train their own teachers, create a body of knowledge, break
down the bars of educational prejudice. This work has taken time. The
results justify the time and effort. For today agricultural education is
becoming organized, the subjects of study are well planned, and
competent men are teaching and experimenting. The disappointment is
twofold. They have not graduated as many farmers as they should have.
This is due not wholly to wrong notions in the colleges. It is, as
suggested before, partly due to the lack of faith in agriculture on the
part of the farmers themselves. But the colleges are in part to blame.
Many of them have not been in close touch with the farmers. They have
often been out of sympathy with the interests of the farmers. They have
too frequently been servile imitators of the traditions of the older
colleges, instead of striking out boldly on a line of original and
helpful work for agriculture. Today, however, we see a rapid change
going on in most of our agricultural colleges. They are seeking to help
solve the farmers' difficulties. They are training young men for farm
life. The farmers are responding to this new interest and are beginning
to have great confidence in the colleges.

It is sometimes said that most farmers who get an agricultural education
cannot be trained in the colleges. Doubtless this is true. Probably a
very small proportion even of educated farmers can or will graduate from
a full course in an agricultural college. Many will do so. There is no
reason why a large proportion of the graduates of our college courses in
agriculture may not go to the farm. I have no s