FARM LITERATURE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1221, 1 September 1911, Page 8

FARM LITERATURE.

AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY . SUGGESTED."-". ' A suggestion was made by Mr. Edwin Hall at the recent A. and I'. Conference that the principal A. and I - Associations might make provision for the estabjis'hment and maintenance of a good Agricultural Library, where settlers could obtain information about various matters connected with their business._ \ nst sums, ho ssiil, were being spent in otlior lands by highly qualified- experts in investigating the many problems the.Jariner liad to grapple with. Duringwlte last ten years the United• States • Government abno spent about 90,000,000 dollars on their Department of' with tbe result that without anything like a corresponding increase in the ajcca.of land under cultivation the value of their farm products increased from slightly ovir i,000,000,000 dollars to nearly 9,000,000,000 dollars, or more than double. They employed over 12,000 exports, and sent their officials to every part of the v;orld to search for now plants, and to ascertain the results of the work of ;the. most advanced investigations. The information they collected was freely offered to us, and could be-studied in our, own libraries.. They published over C,000,000 bulletins in one year, lor free distribution amongst the settlers. The value of a good agricultural library, where farmers could obtain the results of the investigation's on agricultural matter? 4'hat are being made in other lands, was becoming more evident every day. Complaints were sometimes :ii)ade that such libraries.were not, used-; so much .as they should be, . but surely, said Mr. Hall, sonic of our Aand P. Associations might obtain the services of a member who.•■coulrl act as an intermediary between the scientists ana the farmer, and direct, those who wero seeking for special information to the reports and books ."where it could be found—one ' who "kept ■ himself in touch with the latest developments, and conld point' out what is being done to help the farmers in'other countries where the conditions are similar to our own.