Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-01-26
AN IMPORTANT BILL.

A bill of great importance was intro
duced in the House of Representatives
in Washington Wednesday Jan. II, by
Representative Lever of South Carolina,
and on the same day it was presented
in the Senate Jointly by Senators Carroll
s. Page of Vermont and Hoke Smith OF
Georgia. The bill provides for the fur
Their endowment and support OF agricul-
tural colleges to enable them to assist
in getting into practice the best meth
DDS Of agriculture evolved by operation
of the plan of establishing and maintain
ing agricultural colleges and experiment
stations in the various states.
This measure is the joint work of the
National Soil Fertility league, the exec
utive committee Of the colleges of agri-
culture and the statesmen above named
1t is in line with the Presidents recon-
mendation in his address at the National
Conservation Congress at Kansas City,
Mo, Sept 25, 1911, it has the support OF
the House leaders of both parties, and
1t may be regarded as an omni-partisan
measure.
According to the general plan out Of
which this measure springs, 1t Is pro-
posed that the procedure shall consist
of getting into general practice the best
methods known of scientific agriculture
by employing trained agriculturists, or
practical farm demonstrators, skilled in
the most approved methods of farm
practice, to take to the farmer on his
own farm the information or knowledge
that will enable him, the latter, to in
terpret and adapt to his local conditions
the best methods of farming In plain
terms, 1t will, as rapidly as possible,
place a trained, practical man, selected
and directed by the respective state ag
ricultural colleges, permanently in each
agricultural county of the United States,
and enable the farmer to become mas
ter Of his calling aided by the best SER
vices the country can furnish, and sup
ported by federal and state funds.
According to the provisions of the bill
there will be an appropriation beginning
at the rate of less than one cent per
capita and will approximate three cents
per capita by the time the annual appro-
| priation shall have increased from $780,
| 600 per year, the starting point to a lit
| tie over three million dollars, when it
reaches the maximum. To have clear
| idea of the distribution of these funds
| it must be understood that each state
receiving its share of the fund must ap-
propriate an equal amount for this pur-
pose.
Most authorities have expressed the
belief that the operation of this plan will
| in few years increase the farm out
| put at least so per cent. That means an
| increase of wealth per capita of about
| $4,000 per annum, and 1t adds to the
| country's assets four and one-half bill
| lions in national resources. The average
acreage of Europe gives from two to
three times the yield of the American
farms notwithstanding their soil has
been producing for centuries more than
the lands have been cropped here.
| In the Presidents opinion this prom
! Uses to be the most valuable constructive
! legislation of recent years. Speaker
| Clark says the mind cannot grasp the
benefits that should grow out of this
| movement. Majority Leader Underwood
expresses the belief that it will do more
good to more people than any other
| single enactment in a generation. H.
H. Gross, Of Chicago, president of the
National Soil Fertility league, says he
has submitted this specific plan to every
| agricultural college in the land, there
has been no adverse criticism and about
50 per cent have strongly endorsed it, il
has been approved by about four hun
dred public bodies, such as boards OF
trade, commercial associations, business
mems clubs, women's clubs, etc., and
! nearly thousand influential newspapers
have expressed a willingness to support
it.