44 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



I am inclined to think, however, that there are not many simon pure 

 farmers, who have had the task of getting their bread and butter, of caring 

 for their families, and laying by something for the rainy day, by the labor 

 of their own hands on the farm, but will agree with me that agriculture, 

 oldest of arts, has not )'et such a full supply of knowledge and furnishings 

 as will warrant us in saying, even in this enlightened century, that she has 

 no needs. 



Agriculture has needs, and while, from my point of view, I may not see 

 her wants just as you see them, I shall hope that a little time occupied with 

 this topic may be promotive of thought and therefore of profit. 



I might speak to you of the commonly expressed and most important 

 factors in successful agriculture, as for instance of the need of thorough 

 tillage, which has been a cardinal feature in good farming since the time 

 when Jethro TuU by careful experiment endeavoured to demonstrate that 

 the fertility of land could be retained indefinitely by the most thorough dis- 

 integration of the soil. I might call your attention to the saving and 

 application of manures, the use of commercial foods rather than commercial 

 fertilizers on the farm — a matter much neglected in many localities. I could 

 find a congenial topic in the need and value of improved stock, and the 

 short-sightedness of those farmers who persist in retaining the scrub, when 

 a moderate outlay would gladden their pastures and barns with thrifty, 

 quick-growing, early maturing, and profitable animals. I might elucidate 

 some lessons from the text " more grass needed and less grain " on many of 

 our Michigan farms. The need of scientific knowledge in agriculture and of 

 cooperation are trite subjects which have been much discussed in recent 

 years, but whose place and work are hardly well defined. 



Now it is true that all these are needs in agriculture. They are indis- 

 pensable with certain limitations to successful farming, and words of exhor- 

 tation in these directions should be heeded. 



I do not, however, choose to dwell on these universally acknowledged 

 needs. They are fundamental in good farming. To neglect them is to 

 make failure inevitable. 



Let me rather direct your thought to some of the needs apparent to every 

 thoughtful mind, but alas, too often forgotten in the farmers practices. 



In agriculture, as in other callings, the im jortance of little things and the 

 need of giving close attention to mastering the details of practical work are 

 quite too frequently underestimated. Human nature is prone to give atten- 

 tion to what are thought, often mistakenly, to be the larger problems of 

 business and life, and so neglect the smaller, but as a matter of fact the 

 essentials of success are more in the latter than the former. 



With this thought in mind if I can place before you definitely some of the 

 losses, the dissatisfaction resulting from neglect of little things in agricul- 

 ture, I am sure I shall do you a service. This lack of attention to little 

 things cannot, as a rule, be attributed to ignorance of what should be done 

 and of the evils and losses resulting from the neglect to do. The fact is 

 farmers too often k)ioiv far better than they do. Insensibly and by degrees, 

 they have become habituated to neglect important details in feeding and 

 caring for animals, in sowing, cultivating, and harvesting crops. 



To illustrate, is there a farmer in my audience to-day, who can take me 

 into his barnyard and show me a calf, a heifer, a cow or an animal of the 

 cattle kind and say truthfully, that the animal has, from the hour of its 

 birth, received such food in quantity and quality, as was adapted to its age 



