STATE AID TO AGRICULTURE. 15 



passed, and who failed to obtain a scientific training, and, with the 

 cares of life upon their shoulders, can onh' glean information by 

 their own practice and b}' reading our agricultural reports and 

 papers. I feel as though the class should be looked out for, or in 

 other words they should look out for themselves. They are the ones 

 who are fighting life's battles to-day, and while we should practice 

 economy in all our business affairs, we should not be so cautious as 

 not to invest when we are sure of receiving for our investment a 

 good revenue. Now we have to pay a trifle for what reports we 

 have at present, and only one in six farmers with the present num- 

 ber can receive one, and as they will tend to educate the farmer, 

 showing what the Board of Agriculture and our experiment station 

 are doing, why not invest a little more in institute work and reports? 

 I have heard the remark made, What good does the Board of Agri- 

 culture and experiment station do me : I never get a report? And 

 as proud and pleased a man as I ever saw was a farmer carrying 

 awa}' a handsomely bound report ; he felt as though he had received 

 something equivalent to what he had been paying out. There is cer- 

 tainly not enough reports to meet the demand, there is only enough for 

 the favored few. There is one thing more I can hardly endorse, 

 although I speak with all honor and respect to our worthy Secre- 

 tary, but our agricultural interests receive only his divided attention. 

 Will not sixty-four thousand farms justif}' us in paying a secretar}' of 

 the Board of Agriculture sufficient to enable him to give our agri- 

 cultural interests his undivided attention ? 



There is a demand for more institute work, more reports, and 

 more attention from the Secretary. This means an appropriation 

 sufficient to meet the demands. The Board of Agriculture are do- 

 ing all the}' possibly can with the present funds they have to work 

 with. Not wishing for any to think I am here to-day on a begging 

 mission, for certainly the farmers of our State would not justify me 

 in that, yet as I understand business, it is simply this, first find out 

 what we want, and then go ahead and do it. And I feel justified in 

 saying that if this honorable body should recommend to our Legis- 

 lature, and they should appropriate sufficient means to stock our 

 College farm, increase our institute work, pay our Secretary sufficient 

 to enable him to give our asricultural interests his whole attention, 

 or any measure whereby the farmers would become better educated, 

 it would be a profitable investment, by causing our productions to 

 be of better quality, the cost of producing would be less, this being 



