GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 43 



I can say no more, I believe, this morning on account of 

 lack of time, but I would like to say in conclusion that in con- 

 nection with this work which the Department is doing if you 

 can glean some idea of its immensity and at the same time get 

 some realization of the importance and dignity of farm life, 

 I shall certainly have succeeded in my mission here. The De- 

 partment is advancing all means of knowledge on agricultural 

 matters in a way never before undertaken, and if we are to 

 keep our sons and our daughters on the farms, if we are to in- 

 terest them and keep them there, as I believe we should in 

 this country, we must give them something to do ; we must 

 give them something interesting. If we can place in their 

 hands knowledge which will serve to interest them in farm 

 work and hold them upon the farm, we will accomplish an 

 exceedingly useful thing. In this connection I remember a 

 little story of Burbank, and you all know how the name of 

 Burbank as a plant breeder has spread over the country. You 

 have heard of the Burbank potato. Burbank describes the 

 origin of that in this way. He was familiar as a boy with the 

 original Early Rose potato. He knew of the methods that 

 had been pursued because he had talked them over with well- 

 informed people. He was a student in this region, and was 

 going to school. He said that his uncle had a patch of Early 

 Rose potatoes, and he had to pass through that patch every day 

 on his way to school. He was always interested in the matter, 

 and he began to look for seed balls. Now you know the Early 

 Rose is not a prolific producer of seed balls, but one day he 

 came across a plant that had a couple of seed balls developed 

 upon it. Why, he said he watched those seed balls with the 

 greatest interest every day. Every day he said he would walk 

 by them watching intently for one of the balls to fall. One 

 morning when he went by he looked at them and noticed that 

 one had gone. He said that he felt like crying over the loss 

 of that ball. He hunted for it but could not find it. He said 

 that he could not give it up, and every day for a week he said 

 that he went back to the place and searched for that seed ball 

 and finally he said he found it some distance away from the 

 plant, where some animal had passed rapidly through the 

 patch and the ball had been knocked from the plant. Now 

 being familiar with the work in plant breeding he took the seed 

 ball and from that progenitor produced the results obtained in 



