3G BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Fourteenth District — Joe Cumiingliam, Pern, Miami County. 

 Fifteenth District — C. B. Benjamin, Leroy, Lake County. 

 Sixteenth District — James E. McDonahl, Ligonier, Noble 

 County. 



Hon. Jolm W. Iloltzman, Mayor of Indianapolis, in welcoming 

 the State Board members to the city, said: 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 



I hardly know how to address so varied an audience except to say 

 "Gentlemen," and if Sid Conger will excuse me I will use that term. I had 

 hardly expected to be able to be with you this morning, although I want 

 to assure you that it is a pleasure to meet Avith you; but since going into 

 office on the fil'toonth day of last October 1 have been ruther busy, and 

 have had very little time to prepare speeches for any occasion. On that 

 score, I have no doubt, you will all feel like congratulating yourselves, 

 because you will escape what would probably be a long, tedious and dry 

 address. 



I do want to say that on behalf of the city of Indianapolis we appre- 

 ciate the work done by the A'arious associations which meet here in 

 these conventions. Indiana is a great State, with most wonderful and 

 varied resources. And while Indianapolis is becoming a large manufac- 

 turing center, that, after all, is but a small part of the business of the 

 city. If the great growth and development of the city of Indianapolis 

 is to continue she must in the future, as she has in the past, depend 

 upon the agricultural districts for the support which Avill make that 

 gi'owth possible. I will not say that I feel like congratulating the gentle- 

 men who are here, the farmers of the State of Indiana, for the progress 

 they have made in the last decade or two. Dave Wallace told me to say 

 I had been a farmer and I would be all right. I Avas raised on a farm. 

 In the days when I did farming it was done in rather a crude way. We 

 planted corn simply because it was corn, and there was no pedigree about 

 it. It was the same about the raising of hogs. There was some effort 

 made in the raising of cattle to improve the stock, and there was still 

 more of an effort made towards improving the breeds of horses, but there 

 was nothing Hke the care that is exercised in these matters now. There 

 is a greater degree of intelligence exercised now in the tilling of the soil 

 than there was in the days when I Avas a boy on the farm. People are 

 becoming educated to the fact that there is something more than the mere 

 putting of the seed in the ground; they have learned that there is a great 

 deal in the selection of that seed. Since the days when I was a boy on the 

 farm, a great many other things have occurred in this country, and some 

 of them very recently. One of these things is the rural mail routes, which 



