The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-01-16
TROEOJJGH. MD. FRIDAY. JANUARY IS, 1903.

the Investigations OF departmental
specialists; corn-breedlng for early
maturity, greater nutritive value and
power of resistance to drouth and dis
ease has been carried on with marked
success; new forage plants, including
varieties Of alfalfa and bronze grass,
have been brought from abroad, and
are completely reforming the grazing
industry on the great plains of the
West; irrigation experiments have
been conducted throughout the arid
West, with results whose value can.
not be computed in dollars and cents;
sugar-bcet investigations thus far con-
Quoted will make this country power
ful competitor for control of the worlds
sugar markets; improved varieties of
wheat and oats have been imported,
increasing our annual harvest of these
grains by many millions of bushels; it
was through the efforts of the depart
ment that the contagious pleuro-pneu-
monia of cattle was completely exter-
minated several years ago, and exten-
sive experiments are being conducted
looking toward control of other dis
eases of the herds. We might as well
stop at one place as another; a CON-
plete statement is impossible. Mr..
Wilson says:
"This work will grow and expand
from the foundations laid 80 wisely
and we'll in the past by our far-seeing
lawmakers until the power of the man
and the acre to produce will greatly
exceed anything with which we are
now familiar"
Every valuable result attained is
Immediately communicated to every
farmer in the land who desires. Mil
lions of monographs, bulletins and re-
ports have been circulated; enough to
furnish anyone with liberal education
in the theory and practice of scien.
tl6c farming, and hundreds Of tons of
new seeds and plants have been dis
tributed to those who wish to expert
ment.
The agricultural colleges now scat
tered abroad throughout the country
we're created by the Morrill, Act, en-
acted by Congress in 1862. This act
made provision for the establishment
Of one technical college in each state
and territory of the Union. 1t is the
conduct of these institutions about
which the grange make complaint,
saying that the training given is "im-
practical" The complaint seems to
rest chiefly upon the fact that the
work of the teachers comprehends too
much that may be regarded as merely
elegant and not Immediately useful to
the hard-headed man, who likes to see
the BELTS OF education follow as direct
ly after instruction as the furrow fol-
lows the plowshare. But, as said by
Prof A. G. True, "even in the stron-
gest institutions established under the
Morrill, Act, for many years most of
the state and national funds obtained
for their maintenance were wisely ex.
pended in building up sound educa-
tion in the natural sciences. In this
way only could they lay strong and
deep foundation on which to rest
substantial superstructure of technical
education when the times we're ripe
for it's erection" And President Buck
ham, of the University of Vermont,
has said that "what Mr.. Morrill, meant
was that the liberal education of the
the industrial classes should make
heir pursuits professions, and
make their pursuits professions, and
should liberalize the industries and arts
Of life, bringing the light of learning
and the aid of science to bear upon
those pursuits and callings which,
heretofore regarded as liberal and
wearing the bad ge of inferiority, would
thus be lifted to the plane with the
other professions and confer equal re-
speciality upon their members" 1t
is course which will amply justify
itself in due time. Almost without
exception the legislatures of the several
states have materially aided and abet-
ted the Morrill, idea, and free train
ing in scientific agriculture is at the
command Of anyone who wants it.
Many oil the older institutions of learn
ing have inaugurated university ex-
tension courses in agriculture, with
excellent results.
In the decades from 1870 to 1890
many of the states instituted agricul-
tural experiment stations, in whose
work the farmers were free to partici-
pate. In 1881 Congress "nationalized
this movement by the passage of the
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