In the report of the proceedings I have endeavored to present in condensed form those results of the deliberations of the Congress which will prove of most importance to our people. These include points from the address of President Méline on the status of European, and especially French, agriculture; the question of agricultural credit; State assistance; the parceling of the soil; rights of tenants; the consideration of agriculture in the different countries. represented; and agricultural education. I have also given a summary of the deliberations on the sugar beet and the sugar industry. on distilling by farmers, and on cider and dairy matters, together with an account of the instructive visits which the Congress made to the seed-growing establishment of Vilmorin, Andrieux & Cie, at Verrières le Brisson, and to the Arcy experimental farm. I have passed with a few words the deliberations on viticulture and sericiculture, as these subjects are treated quite fully in my report as expert on Group VIII. As it was impossible to give attention to all the sections, I have made no effort to report on the questions of bird protection, the control of rodents, fish and oyster culture, and some other matters, believing that from the very different conditions which affect these questions with us, as compared with other parts of the world, they were of less interest to our farmers.

Those parts of the exhibit which were of a perishable nature were left in Europe, having been donated either to charitable institutions or to the Museum of Agriculture and the Jardin des Plantes. The bulk of that having more permanent educational value was brought back and either shipped to parties who had exhibited with that understanding or deposited either in the Department Museum or the National Museum.

In closing, my sincere thanks are offered to the gentlemen associated with me for the part they have taken, whether in the exhibit or the preparation of the report, and who have so lightened the task. My acknowledgments are also due to many others not mentioned in the report (see Appendix II) who have in various ways aided in the work; and if I emphasize a few names it is from a sense of deeper obligation to the parties: Mr. Charles Richards Dodge has been of the greatest service, both in the preparation of the exhibit in this country and the installation in Paris. Prof. James Cheeseman was also of the greatest service in dairy and meat matters. Both these gentlemen acted in addition as jurymen, and assisted, with Mr. Amory Austin, in the general office work. Mr. George William Hill. in addition to his special work on the cereals, has aided very materially in the general work of preparation. Mr. William Saunders's exper ience and advice have been invaluable. He superintended the packing and, in connection with Mr. William Trimble and Mr. Hill. took charge of matters at Washington during my absence. Lastly, the experience of Mr. John Darr was invaluable both in packing,

unpacking, and installation of the material. His sad and sudden death, on the 11th of August, was deeply mourned by all connected with the exhibit, and Mr. W. E. Humphrey, who was sent over in his place to repack the material for return shipment to this country.. made the best of a very difficult task.

H. Ex. 410-VOL V-32

CHAPTER X.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AGRICULTURE.

By C. V. RILEY.

THE CRISIS IN AGRICULTURE.

I. The International Congress of Agriculture was held from the 4th to the 11th of July. It was presided over by M. Jules Méline, president of the Chamber of Deputies and ex-minister of agriculture, and there were over 1,400 members present, delegates having been sent from nearly all the leading countries, even including Prussia and other German States.

In his opening address M. Méline referred to the fact that never had an agricultural congress been of more vital interest to the future welfare of the people, and never had it been more necessary for scientists, agriculturists, and economists to meet and deliberate upon the causes and effects of the great economic revolution then in progress. This revolution barely commenced to show its effects at the time of the Exposition of 1878, but since that period it has greatly increased. At that time the agricultural market of each country had only to compete with a limited number of neighboring markets, the extent of the production of which was perfectly understood, so that international exchanges might be easily calculated in advance. Since that time and in the space of a very few years, means of communication have by the improvements and extension of railways, canals, and telegraph lines so enormously increased and the price of transportation has in consequence so diminished that the various markets have virtually been brought closer together and in fact the world itself may be considered as one vast market. The effects of such a revolution upon agricultural industry were inevitable. New nations with virgin soil produce crops with very little effort at cultivation and almost without expense, and their production is far in advance of the needs of their sparsely settled population, so that older and more thickly settled countries, where the soil is more or less exhausted by long cultivation, can not

compete with them, and thus the principal source of production and revenues of these older countries-their agriculture-is menaced. How is this danger to Europe to be avoided, and what is to become of her usual population if the tilling of the soil be no longer remunerative? How is the agriculture of France to be made remunerative and emigration to more fertile lands thus discouraged? The question is at once a national, political, and social one. It is far from being yet solved, but France in convoking this Congress in connection with her Exposition has taken the initiative for its solution.

There seems to be among all agriculturists a responsive movement in defense of agriculture from the dangers which threaten it. a movement that will inure to the benefit of all humanity.

When the present period of transition is passed, each country having profoundly studied the conditions of its agricultural production will form an exact idea of the measures to be taken to increase and defend it, and when by a series of scientific, financial, and economic reforms this has been done a general equilibrium will be established, and there will be employment enough for all the world over; there will be more work as there is more nourishment for the workers. The agricultural crisis has had its primary cause in the excess of production in certain regions, and will have for its effect the stimulating of other regions to increase their productions, in virtue of the economic axiom that much must be produced to be produced cheaply; hence the application of science and of scientific thought.

M. Déherain, secretary-general of the Congress, also spoke as follows:

A visit to the Quai d'Orsay suffices to show that agriculture is undergoing a transformation. Formerly in agricultural exhibitions products alone were shown. but now books, laboratory apparatus, statistical tables of the yields of experimental fields, are to be seen in such exhibits. Instead of being guid d by tradition, cultivators, impelled by severe competition, are seeking to do better, and, so far from showing incredulity toward the teaching of science, are following its counsels. This salutary movement should be hastened and aided in every possible way, and it is the interest of the cultivator to judiciously employ, by the aid of science. natural forces in the production of increasing quantities of animal and vegetable matters to such an extent that humanity shall suffer less from want of food.

The Congress was carefully organized, and the names of many of the first scientists and agriculturists of France were to be found upon its roll. The subjects to be discussed were divided into six heads, the first of which concerned the most important of all-the crisis in agriculture. The other heads were: (2) Agricultural credit, institutions, etc; (3) agricultural instruction; (4) agronomic industries: (5) viticulture and sericiculture; (6) protection of birds, destruction of noxious animals, etc. Pamphlets containing papers, statistics. etc., upon each of these heads were issued, and questions upon each subject proposed to the action of the Congress, which, after full dis