Dues American Council on Education. 100.00 Deposits Passumpsic, Bennington County and Vermont Savings 2,000.00 Total disbursements $5,421.52 ASSETS $ 209.41 Cash on hand, November 16, 1926.. Deposits Winooski Savings Bank.. 66 66 Passumpsic Savings Bank.. Bennington Co. Savings Bank. Certificate of Deposit Howard National Bank.. Estimated interest on deposits to January 1, 1927. Total Assets 2,000.00 1,000.00 500.00 500.00 1,000.00 389.35 $5,598.76 THE PRESIDENT. We will now receive the report of the Auditing Committee. REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE The Auditing Committee has examined the accounts of the Treasurer and finds the same to be correct. All vouchers, properly approved and receipted, have been found on file. It finds a bank balance as stated, of $208.41. It finds in the Treasurer's hands savings bank books, etc., as follows: Certificate of Deposit Howard National Bank, Burlington, $1,000.00 Deposit Winooski Savings Bank, Winooski, Vermont, August 6, 1924 2,000.00 Deposit Passumpsic Savings Bank, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 1,000.00 Deposit Vermont Savings Bank, Brattleboro, Vermont, January 12, 1926.. 500.00 Deposit Bennington County Savings Bank, Bennington, Vermont, January 12, 1926... 500.00 THOS. BRADLee, Committee. THE PRESIDENT. The program of the general session will be continued o'clock tomorrow morning. The session is adjourned. as printed, at 38 WEDNESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 17, 1926. The second general session was called to order at 9 A. M. by VicePresident Coulter of North Dakota. THE VICE-PRESIDENT. According to the program as you have it printed, the first number is the address of the President of the organization. You know him as well as I do, and I shall not take up any of your time in introducing him, but will merely present him to you. PRESIDENTIAL Address. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE LAND-GRANT INSTITUTIONS IN PROMOTING A SOUND AND FORWARD-LOOKING By E. A. BURNETT. The Land-Grant institutions have come to be recognized as the leaders of agricultural progress in the United States. They are the sources of agricultural information in our system of education. They contribute the most trusted scientific data now used in agricultural production. They are the great fact-finding agencies which have modified and determined agricultural practice. They should develop a national agricultural policy. The law establishing Experiment Stations in 1887 provided for "investigation and experiment respecting the principles and application of agricultural science" and under the natural interpretation of this act investigation turned largely to problems of production. It was a virgin field attacked with a vigor and effectiveness that brought together a vast fund of scientific information which gradually has been interpreted in terms of effective agricultural practice. The incompleteness of such a program has long been recognized by those in charge of research, and so new types of problems, economic and social, have been undertaken with such effectiveness as the resources of the states permit. The demand for further research along social and economic lines was a potent argument before Congress for the passage of the Purnell Act in 1925. and the rapid organization of projects in economics under this act is evidence of the importance attached to this field by the directors of research in our Land-Grant institutions. In the same year the act was passed, Dr. E. W. Allen (Proc. 39th Conv. p. 185) reporting for the joint committee on projects and correlation in research listed 51 marketing projects outlined for investigation under this act. Additional importance is given to economic studies by the changes which have taken place in industry during the past fifty years. Within the memory of many in this audience the factory system of production has replaced the small industrial unit. With it, the small shops and household crafts have disappeared. Even the customs of home processing and storing of foods for the farmer's table have largely passed. He sells his products on the market and purchases his supplies through commercial channels. The farm has ceased to be a self-sufficient unit. In normal times the farmer profits because of this trend to specialization. He is able to exchange his surplus farm products for more manufactured goods than he could possibly produce by his own labor under the old system. But when the price of farm products falls below the general price level, the farmer may suffer severely because his products will purchase so few of the manufactured goods which he needs. A period of concentration in industry began during the Civil War. It has not yet ended. The advantages of specialization of labor, saving of by-products, integration of processes, and quantity marketing are so great that the concentration of manufacturing enterprises into large units may be considered a logical and inevitable development. Cost accounting systems enable the manufacturer to learn not only the cost of his finished product but the cost of each manufacturing process. When the demand for goods decreases, the manufacturer restricts production. By regulating the supply, he exerts a measure of control over the market. Farming, unlike manufacturing, thrives best on a small unit basis. We have at present more than 6,000,000 independent farms. The output of farm products is greatly affected by climate and season. Normal production may vary up or down to produce a surplus or a deficiency on the basis of acre yields, the direct result of favorable or unfavorable seasons. To illustrate, Iowa, the leading corn state of the Union, produced 28 bushels of corn per acre in 1924 against 43 bushels per acre in 1925. Ohio, another leading corn state, produced 26 bushels of corn per acre in 1924 against 48 bushels in 1925. Kansas, the leading wheat state produced 16.3 bushels of wheat per acre in 1924 and 8.7 bushels per acre in 1925. Minnesota, the second leading wheat state, produced 22.1 bushels of wheat per acre in 1924 and 13.2 bushels in 1925. (Yearbook of Department of Agriculture, 1925, page 746). Individual farms within these states varied much more widely. While the variations of season in different sections of the United States tend to neutralize each other, large aggregate yields are more frequently the result of favorable climatic conditions than of increased acreage. The farmer has been under the additional handicap of not having a selling organization that holds his interests paramount. Men who are engaged in handling farm products for profit are not particularly interested in holding down distribution costs or in searching out new markets for the benefit of the producer. The farmer is now seeking to reduce the hazards which affect his prosperity. It is true that he cannot control climate, but he has learned much concerning the effect of climate upon different crops. He has found the market hazard fully as great as the climatic hazard, and he would reduce the former by developing a market system adapted to his needs. A deep responsibility rests upon the Land-Grant institutions to apply to the economic phases of agriculture the same scientific research methods that for many years have been applied to production. The problems involved will include among others an economic land policy, the distribution of the tax burden, transportation, marketing methods, reliable statistics of world production, a study of world markets, and research to develop and extend the industrial uses of farm products. Many of our agricultural problems have grown out of the rapid settlement of our rich prairie states. From the close of the Civil War to 1888 has been called The Period of Westward Expansion. An empire of fertile land was put under the plow in less than a generation. In ten years of this period, from 1870 to 1880, over 297,000 square miles, a territory equal in extent to the area of Great Britain and France combined, were added to the cultivated area of the United States. Great railroad projects preceded the wave of settlement or followed closely in its path. Improvements in farm machinery increased the amount of grain one man could produce. Over-production and financial depression brought hardship and decreased property values in the middle nineties, but the men who stayed on the land were amply rewarded in the years that followed. From about 1900 to the outbreak of the World War was a prosperous period for American agriculture. Our domestic consumption increased more rapidly than production, and prices were adjusted to a fairly stable basis. The price of farm products rose gradually resulting in increased land values. Farm machinery was further improved and man-labor requirements decreased. The Experiment Stations and the United States Department of Agriculture contributed largely to the success of the progressive farmer by new contributions in the field of agricultural research. While economic balance was measurably restored during this period, production responded quickly and invariably to price stimulus. This was illustrated again under the pressure of war demand and is a factor which must be reckoned with in any plan dealing with crop surpluses and price stabilization. We need not here recount the story of war inflation and post-war deflation except to say that the latter, which left ruin in its course, is the cause of much of our present trouble. It threw all the machinery of production out of balance and left the farmer at a great disadvantage compared with his factory neighbor who could close his shop, discharge his labor, and await a more normal market. The farmer could not close his factory. The land had to be cared for. He could not discharge his labor, which consisted of himself and his family. So he operated at a loss as did many factories, expecting that prosperity would return in due time. This has in part been realized, but only in part and with wide variation in different regions. The anomaly which cannot be explained to the farmer is the rapid recovery in manufacturing, while the farm industry still languishes, especially in the middle western states which are richest in agricultural resources. While we have striven to take up the old economic stride, there is much halting and many say with Hamlet, "The times are out of joint." We are well agreed that the farmer should not expect legislation to take the place of individual efficiency. Studies in farm organization have shown a wide variation in farm costs. Reports from the Department of Agriculture Year Book show the cost of growing wheat in 1924 varied in different states from 88 cents per bushel for the lowest state to $1.82 for the highest state. In seven leading corn states the cost of producing corn in 1924 varied by states from 54 cents per bushel in the lowest to 84 cents per bushel in the highest. There were of course wide fluctuations within each state. A Minnesota College of Agriculture cost survey in 1925 shows that butterfat produced on 25 neighboring farms varied in cost from 29.4 cents per pound on the lowest to 71.2 on the highest. This wide variation in costs is evidence of the need for more thorough standardization of methods in the interest of economic production. Such a study will doubtless show that much of our production is not economical. Many sub-marginal lands should probably be eliminated. Government appropriations to reclaim land not now producing should doubtless be suspended. Readjustment of crop acreage to secure a better balance of crops to market requirements might be advised. Excessive cost of production from many unsuspected causes is sure to be revealed by a thorough economic survey of production. Much assistance has been given the farmer to aid him in meeting his individual problems through governmental and Land-Grant institutions. Standard grades have been developed to assist in marketing. Much control work is done in the interests of animal health and the inspection of animal products for human food. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics furnishes reliable reports on crop prospects. These should be extended to include prompt and full reports on world production with which our products compete. The agricultural experiment stations and the agricultural extension service are organized to assist in carrying helpful information to every farmer's door. The Federal Land Bank has been established as a farmers' cooperative organization by which the land credit of individual farmers may be pooled to secure a low rate of interest upon favorable terms of payment. Under this system more than one billion dollars have been loaned by the twelve Federal Land Banks upon farm lands. Not only is the interest rate low, but all the profit is returned to the borrowers who are the only stockholders. For the farmer who needs credit on land this system is of great economic value. The Intermediate Credit Bank also extends to farmers' organizations longer term credit than is obtainable under the commercial banking laws. Thirty million dollars have recently been released by this bank to aid the cotton organizations in financing their present crop. This bank loans money to cooperative wool growers, wheat growers, fruit growers and other organizations which require credit to purchase seasonal crops as they are thrown on the market and merchandise them to the advantage of the grower. Land-Grant institutions of many states have undertaken to work out a balanced system of production. By increasing those crops produced at the greatest profit and decreasing those produced at a loss, they have readjusted their agriculture more in harmony with general economic trends. Many aids to stabilized marketing now exist. Terminal elevators and bonded warehouses for non-perishable products, packing houses, cold storage plants and refrigerator cars for perishables, and cooperative and private agencies which aim at orderly distribution to prevent market gluts have done much to furnish a dependable supply to the consumer and stabilize the price to the producer. Still there is much fickleness of demand which seems to be keen under the smallest margin of deficiency and slug |