In May of 1910 there were 975 institutions giving instruction in agriculture. There has been a rapid development at the same time of college-extension work in agriculture, agricultural education under the county system, and consolidated rural schools, together with numerous other activities, which have been of practical value in creating better standards of knowledge and practice of farming.
One who studies the history of the world’s farming cannot fail to be struck with the fact that the dignity and importance of the farmer’s calling have always been recognized, although more in some countries than in others, not alone by the passing of laws for his encouragement, but by the coöperation and help of those in other occupations. In the reign of Henry VII of England, in the year 1488, a statute was passed to prevent the acquisition of large land-holdings, in order to prevent lands formerly tilled from becoming idle and unproductive. Half a century later the English law shows a quaint statute, curiously like some of the legislation one hears about
