Under scientific culture

old lands are reclaimed and made as fruitful as ever; irrigation and the choice of crops suited to the soil, bring into profitable use lands once so hopele as to be called desert, and the world’s food supply promises to keep up with the growth of population. As a result of the new conditions, to be a thoroughly trained and competent agriculturist requires a special education, partly theoretical, partly practieal. In particular, no scientific cultivator can now be ignorant of agricultural chemistry, which teaches the constituents of the various plants grown as crops, their relation to the various: soils, the nature and function of different manures, &. In most countries there are now agricultural schools or colleges supported by the state. In the United States nearly all the states have colleges, or departments of colleges, devoted to the teaching of agriculture, and large allotments of public land have been made for their support. In Germany such institutions are numerous, and highly efficient. For teaching agriculture practically model farms are commonly established. In many 9 countries too there is a ministry of agriculture, one of the important departments of government as in the United States, where latest available statistics show the quantities of the chief crops raised each year to be approximately: wheat, 737,189,000 bushels; corn, 3,772,376.000 bushels; rye, 32,239,000 bushels; barley, 170,284,000 bushels; oats, 1,007,353,000 bushels; potatoes, 376,587,000 bushels; cotton, 13,241,- 799 bales (500 pounds); tobacco, 949,357,000 pounds, and hay, 64,- 938,000 tons.