82 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



bountifully. Our wheat, both as to quality and quantity is not inferior to any. 

 Our oats, rye. buckwheat and all otiier small crrains are absolutely unsurpassed. 

 As to vcgetal)les, 1 think I may safely say tliat northwestern iMiehiiran excels 

 in their production. Where can better grasses be raised than in this region? 

 I have traveled over the principal grass producing regions of the United States 

 and I here state the result of my observation to be that this is the equal of any. 

 "Why should not the farmer succeed here? He should succeed — nay, he does 

 succeed whenever he labors with his head and his hands. And un1e>s the 

 farmer does labor with his head as well as with hands no country on this earth 

 is productive enough to enable him to prosper. If one of your boys was intend- 

 ing to be a lawyer, you would send him to school, and to the best school — 

 perhaps to the Agricultural College. Just as much as you possibly could you 

 would do the same if one of your boys should conclude to study medicine. 

 And if oneof them should ever become impressed with the idea that he should 

 be a minister of the Gospel, no trouble or expense would be spared to qualify 

 him for his high calling. Oh, yes, professional men must be educated. Why, 

 if one of your boys should conclude to become a book-keeper you would send 

 him to some mercantile college the first thing you did. What would you send 

 him there for? To give him an opportunity to learn the science of book- 

 keeping, of course. But when it is decided that a boy is to be a farmer it used 

 to be decided the same day to take him out of school. It is not so often the 

 case now, although it is to some extent the rule yet. "It is not necessary to 

 educate him, he expects to be a farmer." I have heard this expression many 

 times. I believe I can truthfully say that I never heard it repeated when it 

 did not make me angry. I hato that expression. I have detested it from my 

 childhood. I desjjise it to-day. It is an expression that ought to have become 

 infamous a century ago. This saying had its origin in the idea that labor was 

 disreputable. That idea was annihilated by the great Lincoln when he pro- 

 claimed that the withering curse of slavery was no more, and that this fair 

 land should be tilled ooly by freemen. 



This saying never was and never will be true. Every person who repeats it 

 shows his ignorance of what farming is. It is as necessary for a farmer to 

 be an educated man as it is for a school-teacher or a professor in a college; 

 in fact, his field of life is much broader and more comprehensive than 

 either of these professions. The farmer has to do with many branches 

 of science ; he can not confine his labors to one or two, and the more he 

 knows of any department of practical knowledge the better he is off. The 

 farmer should be a student all his life in order to make success certain. I 

 do not say that unless he is an educated man and a student he is certain to 

 fail ; but I do assert that if he is an educated man and a student he is almost 

 certain to succeed. Now, somebody is ready to ask, What should the farmer 

 study? In a general way the question is very easily answered. He should 

 study farming. Every man should make a specialty of the business he is 

 engaged in. You say, Yes, that is all very well, but what do you under- 

 stand by the word ''farming"? Now we have reached a question of some 

 difficulty. The term means more than scratching the back of old mother 

 earth without producing even a decent irritation. It means more than simply 

 sowing and reaping. The word farming may be defined to be the science that 

 treats of the earth, its formation, and all its products; it also includes the 

 sciences of natural history and chemistry. Now, if I were to criticise this 

 definition at all, I should say that it is too narrow; it will, however, answer for 

 my present purpose. But let us verify a little, because in this incredulous age 



