168 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



fact and of inspiration. If "book-farming" came to be a by-word, 

 it was because the epithet was deserved. It is true that the agri- 

 cultural industries are the most difficult to all industries to reach 

 with the educational motive, but this is because of the inherent 

 difficulties of the subjects and not because farmers are unwilling to 

 learn. 



The truth of these remarks is attested by the large attendance at 

 many of the meetings which have been held under the auspices of 

 the bill, by the eager questioning of the attendants, and by the 

 enormous correspondence which pours into the Experiment Station 

 offices. An instance of the awakening interest may be cited. The 

 writer met about twenty fruit growers at Hotel Kichmond, Batavia, 

 in early spring. The work of the year in Genesee county was 

 talked over. On the 14th day of May an orchard meeting was held 

 at South Bethany at which 300 to 400 people were present ; on the 

 ISth of July, at a potato-spraying contest at Stafford, 500 or 600 

 people were in attendance ; on the 22d of August, at Nelson Bogue's, 

 near Batavia, the turnout was estimated at 1,500 to 2,000. Yet, 

 large as this number is, the writer has addressed a western 

 New York farmers' audience of twice this size during tjie past 

 season ! Surely the time is ripe for sowing the seed of the new 

 agriculture ! 



Some of the teaching under the auspices of this bill has been 

 done by sending a man to attend horticultural and grange meetings, 

 when such a favor was requested. Last spring we inaugurated 

 a series of "spring rallies," which were brisk, active meetings 

 of one or two days' duration. For the most part, two or three 

 persons took part in these meetings — the officer in charge of the 

 work, Mr. Lodeman and Mr. Slingerland. It was the purpose 

 of these meetings to send the farmer into the season's work with 

 such an initial velocity that he oould not stop himself before the 

 harvest time. There were plain direct talks about the philosophy 

 of tillage, fertilizing the land, conservation of moisture, and the 

 like, instructions about spraying, and sometimes talks about insects. 

 An orchard was generally sprayed for the purpose of explaining 

 the operation. These meetings were uniformly well attended. 

 Some of the best of them were held at Morton, Clyde, Dundee and 

 YouuiTstown. 



