The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-08-14

l wish 20 express to YOU my very
keen appreciation, Of your letter OF
congratulation upon my appointment
rs Chairman of the House Committee
On agriculture. Personally, | should
prefer infinitely to be the Chairman
of this Committee than to hold the
chairmarship of any other commit
tee of the House, because my service
on it makes me know that no other
committee affords such splendid op-
portunities for real service to all
classes as this.
This new Committee on Agricul-
ture. if it's temper is understood by
me. will do real constructive funda-
mental work. We shall have to re-
organize the Department, tighten up
the screws, give it the proper exer-
else in order that its muscles may be
hardened, and that it may be devel-
oped as an organization for the stren-
uous work before it. This reorgan-
ization is going on at the present
time. but it will have to be confirmed
bv the Committee on Agriculture,
and it will take more than ordinary
courage to cut out some eXcrescen-
ces coming to view.
information Embodied" in Learned
Bulletins.
The Department of Agriculture
was created for the purpose of col
lecting and disseminating informa-
ton to the people on subjects per-
tanning to agriculture. For long
while, even under the Secretaryship
of Mr.. Wilson, the Department con-
tented itself with the investigational
side of it's work Information through
the experiment stations of the sever
al States and through the Depart
ment itself was collected in great
Quantities, and beautifully embalm-
ed in farmers bulletins, which were
distributed, and the public neither
understood them, nor in most cases
read them.
Lately the Department has been
conducting in the South campaign
to demonstrate the result of it's in
yestigational research work, and the
result has been good I propose in
what is known as the Lever Bill, to
reorganize this work, making the
agricultural colleges of the States
the centers from which the demon
stration work shall flow out, and this
purpose is predicated upon the idea
that the local institution is best
equipped to know the local needs.
What the Lever Bill Proposes.
The bill seeks to unity the work
of the Department of Agriculture, the
experiment stations, and the agricul-
tural colleges, making them all un-
derstand that they are public func-
tionaries created to do a common
public service. The provisions OF
this Bill will develop a better spirit
than now exists between experiment
stations and agricultural colleges,
and the Department of Agriculture,
and the jealousy which has served
to handicap the work of these respec-
tive institutions in the past will cease.
In this program Secretary Houston
and Assistant Secretary Galloway
join heartily, and I am led to think
that there will be no holding back
upon the part of the other parties
concerned.
The Department has spent a great
deal of time in teaching the farmer
how to produce more from the soil.
This is we'll.
We have sent our men in the field
to teach the farmer how to grow
two bales of cotton where one grew
before. In this effort the great COM
mercial and philanthropic associa-
tions of the country have joined. The
farmer has been aroused to a better
understanding of his control of the
soil with the result that where these
demonstration methods have been
pursued crop production has increas-
ed largly. We are carrying to the
farmer through these methods the
accumulated information of so years,
but this information touches only one
side of the problem.
Marketing Problems Now Most Ser
iOuS.
To ascertain a fact about agricul-
ture is important, to demonstrate its