It is a very noble and handsome picture
for the imagination, and I have asked myself before I came here to-day,
what relation you could bear to the Government of the United States and
what relation the Government could bear to you?
There are two aspects and activities of the Government with which you
will naturally come into most direct contact. The first is the
Government's power of inquiry, systematic and disinterested inquiry, and
its power of scientific assistance. You get an illustration of the
latter, for example, in the Department of Agriculture. Has it occurred
to you, I wonder, that we are just upon the eve of a time when our
Department of Agriculture will be of infinite importance to the whole
world? There is a shortage of food in the world now. That shortage will
be much more serious a few months from now than it is now. It is
necessary that we should plant a great deal more; it is necessary that
our lands should yield more per acre than they do now; it is necessary
that there should not be a plow or a spade idle in this country if the
world is to be fed. And the methods of our farmers must feed upon the
scientific information to be derived from the State departments of
agriculture, and from that taproot of all, the United States Department
of Agriculture.
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