Skventy-Tiiird Annual Report 1195 



I know many of the senators — have a speaking acquaint- 

 ance with them — and if J\Ir. lliison, j\Ir. Sisson and Mr. Conant 

 will tell mo what they want 1 will agree to pass the word and 

 give them the wink and word on the sly, and perhaps that may 

 be as eltective as the votes of some of the men on the lloor. 



I have some opinions myself as to what shonld be done in agri- 

 culture. I am a modest man — Governor Sulzer used to say 

 that, so 1 can sav it here - — and I do not like to boast about the 

 metlals 1 have won and the credentials I have; but in my home on 

 Willett street one of the things in which I take the greatest 

 pride and to which I have referred every time I ran for 

 oitiee, is the fact that I have a nice letter up there from a num- 

 ber of grange societies thanking me for the stand that I took in 

 the fifty-sixth congress on the oleomargarine question. And in 

 front of me among you sits your good friend, Mr. Tucker, who 

 remembers the stand I took in that tight. Long before that I 

 was interested in agriculture, and I am interested now. 



I believe that what we ought to do in this country, is to adopt 

 the system that France adopted in 1879 and teach agriculture 

 in every school in the land to a more or less degree. Now I do 

 not mean by that that we ought to try to make farmers out of 

 every boy in the land. That is not the purpose of it. AVhen we 

 teach grammar in our public schools we do not expect to make 

 every boy an orator. When we teach algebra we do not expect to 

 make every boy a great astronomer. When we teach belles lettres 

 we do not expect to make every boy a poet. But when you teach 

 rhetoric you interest the boy in the fine writings of the world ; 

 when you teach poetry you interest him in the production of the 

 master poet minds of the world ; when you teach mathematics 

 vou interest him in the business affairs of the world; and when 

 you teach agriculture in our schools, although you do not make 

 every boy a farmer, you make him more or less interested in agri- 

 culture, and when you do that you promote the cause of agricul- 

 ture and you pi'omote the cause of humanity. Men pay no atten- 

 tion to the things they know not of. To interest a man in a thing 

 you must tell him something alxuit it, and when a man learns 

 something about a thing he becomes interested. For that reason 

 if agriculture is taught in our schools, as it is taught in France, 



