Show proposed national fe fiona ural museum would tell teil story of the flie men who have contributed so much to greatness of america ameria her farmers farmei by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union S SOME OME day the united states state may have a national mu seum the purpose of which will wil be to tell the story of those americans who since this na tion was founded have contrib contris buted so much to its prosperity and to its standing as the greatest nation on earth those americans are our farmers when that museum is built and put into operation it will not be a place of static exhibits a storehouse of ancient relics in glass cases with written or printed labels to explain their meaning instead it will be a living museum which presents graphically not only the history of agricultures agri cultures past but also the story of its present and its promise for the future the establishment of such a museum museum was forecast recently when the national agricultural jefferson Bi bicentenary committee made a pilgrimage to charlottesville lottes ville va there to visit the university of virginia and monticello and pay tribute to the man whom claude R secretary of agriculture and chairman of the committee characterized as the founder of modern american agriculture thomas jefferson another speaker on this occasion and the man who made the proposal for a national agricultural museum was herbert A kellar director of the mccormick historical association in chicago speaking on the subject of li living V agricultural museums he said in part let us consider for a moment what should be the character of a national agricultural museum it should probably be located in washington or other appropriate place in the united states housed in one or more large buildings and surrounded with appropriate landscaping here outdoors and under glass should be shown in cultivation representative trees shrubs fruits plants flowers and other vegetation of the united states the outer walls of the buildings should present has bas showing the evolution of agriculture in this country from the primitive indian culture of the time of first settlement to the mechanized farming of the present day on the inner walls should be placed large murals depicting famous agricultural events and scenes thus might be found eli whitney experimenting with his cotton gin elkanah watson holding the first agricultural fa fair ir cyrus hall mccormick trying out his first reaper or lincoln signing the act creating the land grant c colleges of equal interest would be the portrayal of different types of agricultural tural operations such as the production of wheat corn tobacco cotton sugar cane rice and other field crops the cultivation of fruits and flowers and the raising of cattle and livestock in addition to murals there should be a gallery of paintings of agricultural leaders representing all types of activity A theater should likewise be provided where lectures music plays ballets and moving pictures of agricultural interest might be presented dioramas diorama s and Ope operating ratin g models the evolution of agricultural machinery rural architecture electrification in farm regions transportation milling tanning meat pack ing and other types of processing should receive separate attention in appropriate exhibits including the use of dioramas operating models and full sized originals the museum should develop a special library include provision for publishing magazines bulletins and books house and operate a radio station maintain close relations with the agricultural press cooperate with the land grant colleges and possess a microfilm end and photostat laboratory for reproducing copies of literature about the museum as well as pictures of its exhibits an important part of the museum should be the exhibits devoted to the social aspect of agricultural development the life of the rural people should be fully portrayed for each era and for all classes and places the relation of agriculture to geology geography climate and soils entomology biology chemis V ab a 40 Z 4 RN P M PA 11 V 1 4 74 F az 1 five 21 IT g 4 ipg g ka P 35 MM rw 4 e TRIBUTE TO THE FOUNDER OF MODERN AMERICAN agriculture members of the national agricultural jefferson bicentenary committee meeting in the rotunda of the university of virginia in the background is a statue of thomas jefferson founder of the university ver sity seated directly behind the speaker at the microphone is herbert A kellar director of the mccormick historical association who outlined the plans for a national agricultural museum try and engineering also merit adequate attention the national agricultural museum should serve as the headquarters of important national farm organizations and provide appropriate quarters for this purpose this would add prestige to the institution and increase the opportunity for service an essential feature of the museum would be to establish close relations with educational institutions and organizations on its part the museum should offer general and special courses in the form of lectures seminars and laboratory research pertaining to various phases of the history of agriculture and of technology in this and other countries these courses should be open to the public and qualified students should be permitted to take them for educational credits in addition the museum should provide internships intern ships for individuals desiring to specialize in the history of agriculture and technology or to learn agricultural museum technique in reciprocity educational agencies should invite members of the museum staff to lecture and to give courses to the students of the institutions and to arrange for regular visits of students to the museum for the purpose PO se of information and instruction in all the activities of the museum museum its facilities should be developed to promote a better understanding of democracy as illustrated in our agricultural development these and like activities fully carried out would undoubtedly justify the designation of the national agricultural museum as a living agricultural museum establish branch museums in addition to a national agricultural museum located in washington there should be associated with it branch museums situated in different parts of the united states these would be of such character as to merit the designation living agricultural museums to an even greater degree than the national institution ution these branch museums should take advantage of the existence in numerous places in this country of notable sites of representative agricultural activities which nourished flourished in a former day and for a considerable period where possible such activities should be recreated at the original locations among those which come to mind are the production of wheat corn tobacco cotton rice sugar cane indigo hemp flax vegetables fruits flowers cattle and livestock dairying stock farming maple sugar turpentine and lumbering As far as practical in each instance operations erat ions should be shown for s several ev periods such as the colonial post revolutionary antebellum ante bellum benum civil war reconstruction and early century likewise wherever earlier periods are shown some attention should be given to present day operations to show contrast and evolution iti tion collections of physical objects such as implements and machines should also be assembled where pertinent perthie nt to the particular activity the bonanza wheat farming of the dakotas from the to the has long vanished yet we know where the Dalrym ples were located and have information about them the lumber camps of the same period in michigan and wisconsin no longer exist yet we have voluminous records of particular companies and a few tracts of virgin timber are still standing it would still be possible to acquire wheat land and timber and to reestablish and operate a bonanza wheat farm or an old time lumber camp there are a number of well known tobacco cotton rice and sugar cane plantations in the south and cattle ranches dairies and stock farms in the middle west and west where original ownership of land has passed and original agricultural activities are now changed some of these could be acquired and reestablished to operate as formerly in other instances the ownership has changed but the original landholdings have been held together and still produce agricultural crops though not always the same as before westover and curies auries neck and claremont CIa remont on the lower james are plantations of this type again there are a surprising number of famous holdings which even today are owned by the same families which were in possession a hundred or more years ago shirley Shi the carter estate on james river folly the cochran plantation in augusta county walnut grove the mccormick farm in rockbridge county and berry hill the bruce plantation near halifax all of which are located in virginia meet this pattern the same is true of the middleton estate on the cooper river and hampton hall the rutledge plantation on the santee rivert both in south carolina in louisiana rose down the bowman family estate and the cottage longtime long time residence of the butlers should be added the list could be considerably sider ably enlarged in other cases such as mount vernon estate stratford the lee plantation monticello the residence of jefferson and the hermitage home of andrew jackson memorial associations ciati ons operate these places as m museums u with major attention given to the main dwellings the national park service operates wakefield the washington house and arlington the lee residence as well as other well known places in keeping with the establishment of branch agricultural museums in various parts of the united states it would be appropriate to set up a jefferson agricultural memorial association which might operate in connection with the thomas jefferson memorial foundation at monticello shadwell poplar forest or other places directly associated with jefferson on one or more of these original jefferson plantations two types of activities might be on display one would be to carry out and reproduce the agricultural experiments recorded by jefferson in his garden book and his farm book including his development and trial of the moldboard plow A second would be to relate these early enterprises to the latest and most advanced agricultural experiments of the present day set up side by side on the same plantation they I 1 would provide striking contrast contrail between the early time and toda today yand and would indicate the evolution of agriculture in the united St states ittes |