Education of the Farmeb. 445 



found useful information convoyed in a judicious mixture of 

 scientific terms and the language of practice. In fact our 

 farmer is moving in an environment charged with new thought 

 expressed in a new phraseology. Science has marched forth 

 from her seclusion in the laboratories of the old world and has 

 laid her invigorating and reforming hand upon the arts, agri- 

 culture not excepted. The facts and principles of science under- 

 lie much that the tiller of the soil is called upon to consider. 



~No one will disagree with the assertion, I am sure, that this 

 enlargement of knowledge and methods will be available for use 

 in proportion as it is complimented by an enlarged understanding 

 on the part of the farmer. Just as there can be no sound without 

 an ear to hear or sight without an eye to see, so there can be no 

 appropriation of those facts and principles which are the fruits 

 of study and investigation by those who are both deaf and blind 

 intellectually. W<? are indifferent to that which we do not com- 

 prehend. Let me illustrate: 



Several States have recently passed laws for the regulation of 

 the sale of concentrated feeding stuffs. It is provided that no 

 concentrated feeding stuff coming within the legal meaning of the 

 term can be sold unless licensed and especially unless properly 

 marked. The object of such laws is to make it possible for a 

 farmer to know what he is buying and to protect him against 

 fraudulent guarantees. 



The efficiency of this legislation rests largely with the consumers 

 of feeding stuffs. If they do not understand its force or are 

 ignorant of its provisions so that they are willing to make their 

 purchases without any reference to the information and the pro- 

 tection that are offered, their lack of intelligence nullifies in part 

 the efforts of the State to defend their individual interests. 



The experiment station and the farmers' institute bureau are 

 beneficent institutions, but they are of limited value to those 

 members of our rural communities who have so little knowledge 

 of first principles as to be unable to read and listen with an in- 

 telligent appreciation of the facts as presented in bulletins and 

 from the platform. 



The agricultural newspaper is not to be ignored as a source of 

 information to our rural people, but it must be read with dis- 

 crimination. To accept its teachings without (dose scrutiny on the 

 basis upon which they rest would cause serious mistakes, and how 

 shall the reader always discriminate unless he has some acquaint- 

 ance with the fundamentals of agricultural science. 



