34 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



ductive power of the country. The producers have been grow- 

 ing less, the consumers have been increasing steadily, and as a 

 natural result, when the demands on production are greater 

 than the production itself, prices must inevitably advance. So 

 we find at the present time the cost of living in every manufac- 

 turing town and in every city in the land has very largely in- 

 creased, because there is a deficiency along certain lines of pro- 

 duction. 



Take, for instance, fruit. All this beautiful display of fruit 

 here is prohibitive in price to large numbers of consumers. 



Now, it seems to me that there is a place for those young 

 people who have a love for country life, that here is a field that 

 is as promising as any field of which I know at the present time 

 for them to enter. But it is important before they enter it that 

 there shall be some opportunity for acquiring the knowledge 

 and the information which is necessary to enter this field of 

 agriculture successfully. It has been a too common thought 

 that almost anybody could be a successful farmer. If a man 

 failed at every other undertaking in the world the general im- 

 pression has been that it was only necessary for him to go upon 

 a farm and he might succeed. The fact is very different. The 

 man today, or the woman, who attempts to handle a given num- 

 ber of acres of land to be successful in the management of that 

 land has got to be equipped with a breadth of knowledge, with 

 a degree of intelligence, with a degree of skill, that is second 

 to that required in no calling, no profession, no line of business 

 in this country. When young people understand this, and un- 

 derstand that they must have special preparation and prepare 

 themselves for it, they undoubtedly can enter the field of farm- 

 ing and fruit culture with every prospect of splendid success. 



Now what is the need ? As has already been indicated by Pro- 

 fessor Stedman's paper this morning, the principles of agricul- 

 ture should be taught in our public schools ; in our high schools, 

 as he has already stated, there should be technical instruction 

 in agriculture. 



At one time it was my duty to make a special investigation 

 into the rural conditions of New York State. Along in 1896-7 

 I was called upon by a committee of New York people, to make 

 a special investigation into the rural conditions. In my report 

 to this New York Committee one of my recommendations was 



