Thi: Ideal axd Eeal ix Life. 2S1 



make them more receptive to practical knowledge. We live in 

 a State of whose people and institutions we may well be proud. 

 She stands first in professional education, and one of the first 

 in all general education. The farmers are not neglected. There 

 is a special course on agriculture at Cornell University, there is 

 a home course of instruction, of recent introduction, where the 

 student may pursue his studies at home. There is the Experi- 

 ment Station at Geneva, from which are sent valuable bulletins 

 to all farmers desiring them, free of charge. Prof. W. H. Jordan 

 of this station, has secured a very strong corps of scientific work- 

 ers. Mr. Harding of Wisconsin, has been secured as dairy bac- 

 teriologist, he having given especial attention to the study of 

 bacteria, both in this country and in Europe. Mr. George A. 

 Smith of varied and wide experience, has been secured as dairy 

 expert. There are farmers' institutes at the expense of the State, 

 where experts are sent to deliver lectures and answer questions. 



A successful farmer must keep up with the times. He must 

 not stay at home and sit by the fire, and wonder what they are 

 talking about down at that farmers' institute, and what those 

 professors will have to say. He must go down with questions, 

 and paper and pencil in hand and make the best of his advan- 

 tages. He must not be contented to farm merely as his father 

 and grandfather did before him. Times have changed, and he 

 must study the value of fertilizers, and when the suave phos- 

 phate agent comes along, must know something of the value of 

 various phosphates, which he can find from the helpful bulletins 

 sent out, and know that he does not take sand for a good speci- 

 men, nor should he be so easily overruled as to neglect the valu- 

 able fertilizing elements of his own farm, and buy instead a com- 

 mercial fertilizer of doubtful value. 



Past National Master Brigham, at the National Grange, held 

 in Harrisburg two years ago, stated that the development of the 

 farmers' bulletins had been most rapid. Special appropriations 

 were first made for them by Congress, the members of which 

 are entitled to two-thirds of the number printed for distribution. 

 Soon, however, members of Congress solicited and obtained 

 nearly four-fifths of the total number, more than 2,400,000 copies; 

 an increase of half a million over the year previous were then 

 printed, and the demand bids fair very soon to exceed the supply. 



