96 Transactions of the 



relations and enjoyments have been lost sight of. and because the demand 

 for educated men in other callings has been greater than the supply. 

 We must change all this. We must become less greedy of money, more 

 craving of neighbors than of acres; we must apply the principles of 

 cooperation in the purchase and use of machinery as a small beginning 

 in the direction of social agriculture. 



When capitalists abandon speculation and engage in promoting and 

 diversifying industry; when farmers can purchase and own the lands 

 they cultivate, and not till then will agriculture take the place it deserves 

 in the scale of human activities. The time when all these fertile valleys 

 and foothills are covered with happy homes need not be so far away. 

 In southern California, Anaheim furnishes a good illustration of the 

 advantages of social over isolated settlements. The rapid growth of 

 such places as Vineland, New Jersey, proves that there is a genuine 

 love for rural life in the communitj^ when it can be obtained without 

 the loss of social privileges. And the growing tendency of city popu- 

 lation toward suburban life, as shown in the formation of our numerous 

 homestead associations; is another proof that nature is still consistent 

 with herself. 



Here horticulture, the original fine art, which weaves a Aveb of beauty 

 around the lowliest home, becomes the uniting link between city and 

 country. The cultivation of a small garden spot, its harvest of pure 

 and simple pleasures begets a longing for the wider fields and freer life 

 of the farm. I rejoice in the almost universal evidence of this taste. 

 To the stranger in California the clump of lilies blooming in mid winter 

 by every cottage door, the flowering vines wreathed around porch and 

 window, arc a more irresistible attraction than the gold of her mines or 

 the wealth of her commerce. 



But no social organization, however perfect and attractive, will suffice 

 to permanently elevate our industries. This can come only through 

 education. 



I am aware that there is a prejudice against " book farming," and that 

 mother wit and plenty of manure are in older sections of the country 

 considered the great essentials of successsful agriculture. That kind of 

 farming has had its day, just as pans and rockers have had their day in 

 mining. When you think that science is simply the record of experience 

 in these matters, the history oi experiments and of their results — when 

 you think whether it would be gain or loss to have all the agricultural 

 journals and manuals removed, ail statistical information withheld, and 

 the transmission of the most valuable knowledge this age is gaining left 

 to tradition — you are prepared to estimate what science has done and is 

 doing for us. Still more, my practical friend, go back to the implements 

 which your great grandfather, who was " no fool, sir," hoed and bar 

 vested and "thrashed" with. Buy a little wheel and a big wheel, and a 

 reel and loom and dye tub tor your wife, and after using them faithfully 

 for a year, come back and tell me what you think of the service which 

 inventors of machinery and improvers of varieties of plants, and men sent 

 out by our institutions and learned societies to find whatever new ami 

 precious thing can be impressed into man's service, have done for the 

 world. 



When I meet a mechanic who is inclined to depreciate the value of 

 education, who points to " successful men " who have made their lucky 

 hits without it, and who is inclined to follow his calling in a mindh 

 empirical way, realizing none of the relations of his pursuits to great 

 material and social laws, I say: " My friend, all your interests are at the 



