Arizona republican., 1911-05-07
TAFT WILL ADDRESS
 IRRIGATION CONGRESS
AUSTRALIA WILL SEND REPRE-.
 SENTATIVE
Illinois Takes Leading Place Ir
 Scientific Farming.

Chicago. H., May 6-President Taft
 will address the meeting of the Ma
 tional Irrigation Congress in Chicago.
 December to 9. having so assured
 delegation of Chicago business men
 who presented him the invitation. and
 emphasized the importance of this meeting
 The national organization of the
 congress consideres it easier to inter-
 est busy men in the Chicago meeting
 The officers are widely distributed
 geographically being: President. B. \. Fowler, Phoenix. Arizona; vice presidents, first, Fred W. Fleming. Kansas City. Mo, second L. New
 man Great Falls. Mont, third, A. G. Watson. Pueblo. Colo. fourth. John FairWeather, Fresno Cal. fifth. B. C. Buffom, Worland, Wyo.: secretary.
 Arthur Hooker, Chicago. III: foreign secretary, Dr. r.. Mcqueen Gray. AL buquerque. N. NJ
 on the board of directors are: R Insinger, Spokane. Wash w. $. Hope
 well, Albuquerque. N. NJ, W. c. De- Celle, Chicago. H.. and Dr. w. j.
 McGee, Washington b C Each state ! and member of the executive commit tee. \ strong board of control is organized with one hundred of Chi cago's representative business men | with Charles F. Fishback chairman. and F. T. Perkins, managing director. Australia will be represented at the 1 meeting of the congress in Chicago. ! writes Elwood Mead referring to the attendance of Hugh Mckenzie. minis ter of public lands of Victoria. and himself at the last congress Mir
 Mead, who is chairman of the state rivers and water suplpy commission of Victoria, was president of the ir- rigation congress in 1894 and 1900 He writes from Australia:
 "The experience of MT Mckenzie and myself was most enjoyable and the reports from the Australian press representatives who accompanied our ] delegation have given the congress a standing in Australia which it did not before possess. Already several gen tlemen interested in irrigation have indicated their intention of being pres 1 ent at the next meeting"
 Illinois recently took a leading part in the national movement for the ad- vancement of scientific farming when 5O.0OO booklets on Saving the SOil' Were mailed out to farmers through out the state. The campaign which is in line with that of the irrigation con gress is to he advanced from time to time by experts of the University of | Illinois and will be directed by Dr. 1 Cyril C. Hopkins. chief in agronomy. Dr. Hopkins is said by many to be the [ foremost soil expert in the United States and he has the cooperation | in his educational campaign of the | Bankers Association of Illinois. This ! association represents 1,iS0 banks. with more than S1. 900 of bank ! ing assets. all concerned vitalIy in | preserving the richness of Illinois soil | The booklet mailed to the farmers ! is from the pen of Dr. Hopkins. and ! Richard l.. Crampton. secretary of 1 the Bankers Association. has an nounced that a second booklet is in
 course of preparation by Dr. Hopkins | of which half million copies are t0 | bC distributed
 i scientific farm work extending ON- | CT several years.' says MT. Champion | ''has proved the method so good that i it appears imperative to interest ev- cry farmer in the state right now 1 The university authorities are unani- nous in the opinion that no other single agency could so well serve the l university as the bankers association and we were asked to undertake the movement We fell it our duty to do so and consider it privilege t' 1 carry on such work for the state as 1 a whole"
 Dr Hopkins. who is interested in the | work of the National Irrigation Con | gress in Chicago this year, has pre- | pared. through study and extensive 1 travels. many tables of statistics con- l corning average crop yields m tho 1 different states of the union against | the yields of various foreign coun- | tries. The wheat yield at the uni versity's experiment farm has beer 1 made twenty seven bushels to the acre. while the average Illinois yield 1 for the last six years has been onlN seventeen bushels. Friends of this | movement in other states will gather much information from the nineteenth | sessions of the irrigation congress