LIVE STOCK BREEDEKS ASSOCIATION, 



231 



all these, but it maintains the proposition that leadership is to be by asso- 

 ciations such as are here represented. Clearly no other force is so com- 

 petent to assume this leadership; and to me no other problem in agricul- 

 ture is so clearly solved as this— that the various agi'icultural associations 

 representing the united powers of the men of the State most represent- 

 ative of agriculture — these must accept the responsibility of the leader- 

 ship, each in its own line. Of all the forces that shall contribute to the 

 betterment of this particular branch of agriculture, the improved live 

 stock breeders' associations should talce the initiative in everything that 

 will better the industry. There are some things the associations can not 

 do, and these things must be otherwise provided for. For example, your 

 Live Stock Breeders' Association can not publish a paper. I do not think 

 it ought — it is not a machine that will work well in that capacity. I do 

 not think it ought tg hold a fair, because it could not be as successful as 

 other and broader organizations, such as your State Board of Agriculture, 

 have been. I do not think a live stock breeders' association should con- 

 duct a college or even an experiment station, even if it had the available 

 funds, but it should see to it that these forces are set in operation and that 

 their activities are bestowed in regular and orderly manner, and in such a 

 way as Avill most rapidly advance the live stock interests. 



In maintaining the position that agricultural associations should ac- 

 cept the responsibility of leadership of all movements tending to uplift 

 and advance the agriculture of the State I do not forget nor would I 

 minimize the work of any element of this progress. The agricultural 

 press has a work that no otlier force can accomplish; so it is with the 

 exposition, the college and the experiment station. These many activities 

 are not conflicting, but supplementary each to the other; but it is impera- 

 tive for the best results that we all clearly understand and agree as to 

 where leadership belongs. 



Right or wrong, equal or unequal to the task as we may be, it is both 

 the privilege and duty of farmers themselves to study the possibilities 

 and needs of agriculture and to work in season and out of season for its 

 most perfect development. It must be done when it is done, as the result 

 of a common sentiment among progressive farmers. When a few scores 

 or a few hundreds of thinking men begin to think alike and then perforce 

 to act alike, and when it is done it is already put into the lives of the 

 people and it lasts forever. 



Last winter in Illinois the cliairman of one of our organizations said 

 before the appropriations committee, that was considering an item for 

 agriculture investigation: "We do not ask this appropriation as a favor. 

 We do not ask to put our hands in anybody's pocket. All we ask is to 

 be allowed to put our hands in our own pockets and to take out some 

 money for the benefit of our business." 



That is a telling argument. No college or station or paper can talk 

 that way, and when the money is voted upon considerations such as this 



