Government, which the Smith-Lever Act provided, each State submits to the Secretary of Agriculture plans of work for the ensuing year. After these plans are approved by the Secretary, the State is certified for its share of the Federal appropriations for the next 6 months.

Under the various acts mentioned above the several States submit detailed annual reports to the Department of Agriculture on their activities. The land-grant colleges are also systematically visited by members of the Department of Agriculture and the work is carefully gone over. All vouchers for Federal funds involved in the projects are examined. The Department of Agriculture thus exercises close supervision over the agricultural research and the agricultural extension work which is conducted by the States aided by the Federal Government.

THE LAND-GRANT COLLEGES IN RELATION TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

By E. D. BALL

Director of Scientific Work, U. S. Department of Agriculture

A critical study of the development of the Nation during the last century will show that the most rapid increase in population did not begin until about 1870, when the policy of distributing the public domain to the returning soldier, the homesteader, and even through the agency of the timber claim and the railroad grant, was inaugurated. This led to the rapid development of an exceedingly rich and fertile area in the upper Mississippi Valley. At the same time there was a rapid improvement in the method of harvesting and threshing of the grain crops, which was found applicable to and adopted by the producers on these broad and fertile acres. This increase in the possibility of food production by a given individual reacted immediately in the form of a stimulation of commerce and industry. This was the era of railroad building, of town and city development, of the increase in manufacture of steel and iron, in the consumption of lumber, and of general industrial progress, which in turn developed markets for the continually increasing production.

About 1900 a second stage in this era of development was reached. The large areas of rich and fertile land available for settlement were practically exhausted. Small areas of less desirable land scattered throughout the region were gradually taken up. Agriculture was pushed into regions of greater frost and drought hazard; irrigation and drainage projects contributed other areas; but the sum total of new land coming into cultivation only a little more than balanced the areas that were constantly being given up through soil exhaustion, erosion, or to the needs of the growing population. Most of our cities

were established in the rich and fertile river valleys, and their growth steadily eliminated highly productive areas. The development of highways, railways, and electric lines, of parks and pleasure grounds, of golf courses and cemeteries, all contributed to the reduction in the productive area. This became such an important factor that in the last decade 20 of the older States actually decreased in agricultural area, while the greater gains were practically all made on the border zones of profitable production, where either the drought or the frost hazard, or the cost of clearing or otherwise reclaiming the land, made the undertaking expensive or hazardous.

The land-grant colleges were largely founded in the period following 1870, practically coincident with the period of most rapid national development. They were, however, small and struggling at this time, and with a few notable exceptions their influence on this development was not marked.

By 1890 the concentration of production and the increased transportation facilities had combined to produce the inevitable complication of the agricultural problem. New weeds, pests, and diseases had been introduced and widely disseminated; continuous cropping had brought on soil problems, and troublesome marketing factors were beginning to develop. Overproduction was reducing prices, and the problems of decreasing the overhead and lowering the cost of production were attracting attention.

The colleges by this time had become firmly established and were finding their field. The establishment of the agricultural experiment stations a few years previously had already resulted in the accumulation of a small amount of tested knowledge and had opened up wide fields for investigation. This strengthened the college teaching, which again reacted favorably on the quality of the research, so that by the approach of the critical period following 1900, when acreage increases were not keeping pace with population, the land-grant colleges were in position to make their major contribution to the problems of production. It has been largely as a result of their efforts that an adequate food supply has been maintained up to the present time.

We are, however, rapidly approaching a third period in our national history when the acreage readily available for production purposes will have been utilized and the increases will scarcely more than offset the losses. At the present rate of progress that period will arrive within 15 or 25 years, and the United States will become a foodimporting instead of a food-exporting nation unless extraordinary efforts are made to increase production upon the present acreage.

A study of the rate of development of the European nations that have reached the food-importing stage indicates that we may expect at that time a material slowing up in our national progress. Whether

this will happen or not will be largely determined by the national attitude toward the development of those agencies which contribute largely to agricultural and industrial development, chief among which are the land-grant institutions.

During the last half century the major effort of all such agencies has been to increase the production per man. In agriculture the acres were for the time being unlimited. The amount of production was only limited by the man power. In the industries the raw material was abundant, and production was again limited only by the efficiency of the individual. As the result of the national concentration on this phase of the problem, one individual in America will produce four times as much food as would be produced by a worker in any of the European countries; and a fairly similar situation exists with reference to the products of industry. On the other hand, the average production per acre in this country is less than one-half that of England, France, or Germany. In the industries an approximately similar situation exists. If America is to continue to grow and develop with anything like the rapidity of the past century, it will be necessary for all agencies to concentrate their efforts on the development of an increased supply of food and raw materials from the acres under cultivation, and this without decreasing the production per individual. In the same way in the industries it will be necessary to increase the effectiveness and utilization of the raw materials without decreasing the efficiency of the individual worker.

If we study the history of Germany for the last 50 years, we will note that Bismarck at the beginning recognized the problem confronting that nation and turned every facility of government to its solution. Germany spent five dollars to any other nation's one in the development of education and research in agriculture and industry. She was able to interest the most brilliant minds of her own nation in the solution of these problems and even to attract the outstanding men of other nations. She built up the dye industry, the steel industry, and the fertilizer industry. She increased agricultural and industrial production and entered into a career of development of wealth and power far beyond that of any other of the adjoining nations. While she never succeeded in becoming a self-sustaining nation, she approached so near it as to make herself practically independent of the other powers.

The land-grant colleges as at present organized contain all of the essential elements necessary for the solution of similar problems for this Nation. That they will contribute much is unquestioned. Just how much will depend to a large extent on how clearly they vision the problems and organize themselves for their solution. It is entirely possible to increase the production on the present acreage to a point where it will furnish the food supply for a normal increase

in population of the Nation for at least a century to come and at the same time furnish the raw materials for a proportionately expanding industry, so that the Nation as a whole may continue to grow and prosper as it has in the past.

If, however, this goal is to be accomplished, all of the sciences related to agriculture must contribute their maximum service to its future development. There must be better plants and animals, still better cultural methods, better tools and machinery, better organization, and better transportation. Those sciences contributing to an industrial and engineering development must devise better utilization of our raw materials, reduce the power cost, the fuel cost, and construction costs. They must in many ways increase the efficiency of our utilization of the forces of nature. Those sciences which contribute directly to the development of the home and social life must develop a more highly efficient home organization. This in turn will result in the possibility of a better social organization that will in the end result in a more efficient functioning of every component of our increasing population. Those sciences that contribute to the solution of the economic problems must in the same way develop more efficient forms of organization and distribution, more sources of information and prediction.

The land-grant colleges must become State leaders in fact as well as in name. They must organize for cooperation of all the forces within the State necessary for the solution of the problems of the local industry, however large or small. They must also represent the State in providing for interstate and national cooperation of all the forces necessary to the carrying out of great national or international programs. They must continue their leadership and even increase their efforts to develop the proper educational facilities for the solution of agricultural and industrial problems. They must recognize that the educational leadership carries with it other responsibilities; that by virtue of this educational and research leadership they are in most cases the only agency in the State competent to render the service necessary to the organization of new lines of agricultural and industrial effort or to the redirection and development of old lines, and that if they fail in this latter function they have to a large extent failed in their responsibility for the State and National development. It is true they may plead that that function has not been specifically assigned to them, but it has not been specificially assigned to anyone else because no one else is in position to assume it. It is not so much their duty as it is their opportunity.

The land-grant colleges as a whole are rendering a splendid service to the State and Nation. This service is at the present time, however, very largely local and individual-that is, one department or

division will be assisting in the development of a certain phase of an industry. This may be either as a result of its own investigation in which it discovered the need for assistance or may be in answer to the direct appeal from the industry concerned. In the aggregate these fragmentary contributions have resulted in a tremendous development of State and National resources. If, however, we are to meet the problem of continuing the present rate of development of our Nation, there must be a much more highly organized effort along this line. They must not only help industries that are established and in position to call for help but they must look over the field of opportunity and assist in creating industries. They must not only render assistance on a particular phase, as requested, but be in position to recognize where assistance is needed and what divisions of the institution should cooperate in the service.

If we are to maintain and even increase our present high standard of living and at the same time meet the competition of other countries, we must not only meet the superficial and local problem but we must so organize as to be able to carry out projects that can only be accomplished in a national way. The eradication of animal and plant diseases, of insect pests, are national and sometimes international problems in which there must be whole-hearted cooperation of the different States or the project is impossible. Many of our most serious pests and diseases can, with the expenditure of relatively insignificant sums of money, be entirely eliminated, and the consequent increase in efficiency be counted as a contribution to the possibility of our national development. The constant menace of yellow fever to the human race, of the foot-and-mouth disease to our cattle, and of canker to our citrus industry has been eliminated. Other eradication programs are under way, and have already progressed sufficiently to give every encouragement of final success. There are, however, many more pests and diseases that should ultimately be attacked in the same way that are at the present time serious handicaps to maximum production.

In the same way there are great national problems for the consideration of the engineers. Shall we forever continue like China to allow the flood waters of our largest river to continue to be an instrument of death and destruction in the lower levels, when if they were retarded at the source they might instead become tremendous elements of increased efficiency in agriculture, commerce, and industry? We are even now attempting to work out a plan for utilization of the waters of the Colorado, a beneficial and important step, but only one of a large number of similar problems that the engineering forces should have under consideration. We are using up our natural resources in coal and oil at a tremendous rate and allowing the major portion of the potential water power of the Nation to remain un