The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-01-08
GOVEj2iyOI2 INAlVzVlIVG'S AIVIvU-
Al MESSAGE TOLEGLSLATURE
Says Business of Country Now is War But Must Look
Also to Other Rgatters-Fa0or, Nation Wide
Prohibition Will Submit Special Mes
sage or, Money Subjects.
Agricultural Matters.

the handiwork of the late Commissioner,
Col. f. j. Watson.
The act under which the department
is created is broad in its provisions as
regards work in agriculture, leaving tn:
commissioner free to do almost anything
he chooses in that line. Duplication and
overlapping Of effort between the de
partment and the State s agricultural
college, with consequcn5 friction and
waste both Of effort and Of money, is a
danger, and some overlapping has oc-
CURED. The very title Of the depart
ment itself tends to confuse people Of
the State VINO constantly have to decide
for themselves which agency, the de-
parment or the college, can best serve
them in any particular agricultural sit-
uation.
Col. Watson recognized that in the
main the college was responsible for the
educational phases of agriculture, and
the department Of agriculture, commerce
and industries for the enforcement of
those regulatory measures devolved
upon him by the legislature to an extent
sufficient to ensross fully the time and
energy of himself and his associates.
Such issues as d" Use served only to
emphasize the iced tor careful de-
fning of the duties o. those two agen-
cies, both working in the same field and
reaching the same constituency.
Col. Watson 3 death removes the one
man whose intimate knowledge of the
department from it's inception furnished
the necessary background for full! ap-
probation of it's proper limitations, and
its proper relations to the agricultural
college and to other agencies. He wise
ly refrained from exercising all the au-
thirty to do agricultural work with
which the law clother him but even with
the best intentions on both sides there
was some duplication and cross efforts.
: Col. Watson is gone, but the law Gre
ating the department over which he
presided for SO long with such zeal, tact
and Judgment, remains to furnish to a
wilful or ambitious man the authority
to cause confusion, duplication and pos
sible conflict.
It is conceivable that the next COM
missioner elected may be man without
adequate scientific training in agricul-
ture to safely advise our people III that
subject. An equally great danger would
be the election of man Of scientific at
tainments, but hungry for power, who
would stride into the educational field
of the college seeking to duplicate its
work without the necessary staff and
facilities for doing so.
We should not tolerate the prospect
of possible duplication and trouble, and
simply wait for some acute issue to
arise, but should at this opportune time
separate so distinctly the fields Of the
commissioner and Of the college as to
make trouble between them impossible.
It almost goes without saying that the
educational work in agriculture, whether
through teaching at the college or out
in the State, through the extension and
demonstration forces, is by right the op-
portunity and first duty of the agrieul-
tural college. Agriculture is vast sci
ence whose importance is equalled only
by it's complexity. To properly. serve
the agricultural people, large and ez-
pensive staff of specialists, backed up
with laboratories and experiment sta
tions, is necessary, the like of which it
would be neither practicable nor desira-
bic to duplicate. There can be but one
authoritative source Of expert agricul-
tural instruction and advice in a State,
and that should be the agricultural
college. The education of the people in
agriculture is a duty Of the college, and
can not be delegated to another. This
fact is so well recognized that it is the
fixed policy of the United States de-
partment of agriculture to work in the
states only in cooperation with their
agricultural colleges.
Turning from a phase Of the subject
upon which all citizens would agree, we
approach the question &c a division be-
tween the department and the college,
or the regulatory work necessary to be
done in the State.
I think it would be generally admitted
that the agricultural college should con-
fine itself to such regulatory work as is
germane to the production of farm crops
that phase af agriculture in which
regulation and education are closely IN
terwoven. The analysis of fertilizers,
the veterinary and live stock, sanitary
work, the study and control of crop dis
eases and insect pests, the safeguarding
of purchasers of nursery stock-these
lines now carried on by the college are
appropriate activities for an agricultu-
raj college. Organized marketing work
should also be carried on by the college
through its extension service, because
the marketing and production of agri-
CULTURAL products are so intercalated that
then can not be separated to the ad'
vantage of either.
On the other hand, there is distinct
they can not be separated to the ad
police power Of the State, and can well
be exercised by an exccutive branch of
the State government. The inspection
Of oils and gasoline, commercial feed
stuffs, continental feeds and tonics, and
other finished or manufactured products
can be very properly handled by some