50 BOARD OF AGRIOULTUEE. 



tilis couutry have poured into our centers of population, bas prevented 

 decay and deterioration in these crowded quarters. 



^ye may congratulate ourselves, however, upon the fact that in 

 recent years, especially, the farm has come to be something more than a\ 

 recruiting station for the city. American farm life in the Middle West, 

 more particularly, has during the past decade, come to take on an attract- 

 ive character peculiar to itself. The improvement of means of com 

 munication and intercourse, manifesting itself in the multiplication and 

 betterment of highways and the abolition of toll gates, the extension of 

 the trolley line and the telephone to the rural districts, and last, thougli 

 not least, the bestowal of daily mail facilities upon thousands of farm 

 households through the wise generosity of the government, all these 

 things have served to place rural life in intimate touch with the activi- 

 ties of the world outside. Along with all these things, and the prosperity 

 ^with which the American farmer has been blessed during the past few 

 years, has come an appreciation on the part of farmers generally that 

 they are as much entitled to the comforts and conveniences and luxuries 

 of life as their city neighbors— and they are getting them. Indiana 

 farm life as it is today and as it Avas forty years ago are as different 

 as two things well could be. The farm is no longer a synonjjm for 

 monotony, drudgery and isolation. It is an active factor in the industrial 

 world, and farming is as much a business today as any branch of manu- 

 facture or trade. Organizations such as these represented here today 

 have borne a large part in lifting agriculture to the high plane it occupies 

 today, and the interest which attends this gathering constitutes a promise 

 of future progress. 



At gatherings of farmers for many years there has been liberal dis 

 cussion of the question: "How to Keep the Boys and Girls on the 

 Farm?" As a general proposition this problem has been answered by a 

 revolution which has made farm life attractive. The discussions planned 

 for this meeting will reveal the fact that the farm affords sufficient outlet 

 for the activities of trained intelligence. A census of our Indiana insti- 

 tutions of higher learning will show that two-thirds, perhaps three- 

 fourths of their students, are recruits from the farms or from rural 

 communities. In ever increasing proportion th^e young men and women 

 are finding that careers are possible outside of the towns and cities, and 

 in increasing proportion, as the j^ears go by, the Indiana farm will be 

 gainer thereby. 



Your meetings here represent the tendency toward specialization, 

 which extends to all lines of industrial activity. Superior excellence in 

 any one field of endeavor may be attained only by special training and 

 experience. I have no doubt that these conferences as they have been 

 going on here for several years, have contributed immeasurably toward 

 the elevation of the standards of stock raising in Indiana. This year an 

 international exposition at our very doors offers an opportunity not before 



