582 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



then seek for the reasons for their coming; then determine what special 

 training has done for agriculture in the nearby past and what it may 

 do for the occupation and for the man in it in the future. 



If in taking account of our many improvements in ngriculture Ave 

 gi'oup together and classify, we shall find- 

 First. That in recent years, agriculture, the cultivation of the soil, 

 has become divided into several special industries. A quarter of a century 

 ago fruit growing, truck farming, dairying, and animal husbandry as 

 special industries did not exist. All were combined under the general 

 head of farming. It is not too much to say that the division has com- 

 pletely revolutionized agriculture, and to its gxeat betterment. Prepara- 

 tion of land, tillage, fertilizing the soil, the handling of breeds of animals 

 and varieties of plants, all are better done now under specialization than 

 formerly. 



Second. "We shall name as the second most important development of 

 agriculture the great improvement of agricultural implements and the 

 invention of many, many labor-saving devices. Nor need I stop to enu- 

 merate to any intelligent audience the innumerable devices and machines 

 that have come to lighten and lessen the labor of the farm. An old 

 writer, who wrote from the farm, exclaims in a burst of enthusiasm: 

 "Blessed be agriculture!" and then adds, with thoughts of the spade, the 

 hoe, the foi'k, the rake, the scythe, and the sickle, "if one does not have 

 too much of it." Hand tools are now nearly all gone. Machines take their 

 places. We are not now likely to get the old man's "too much of it." 



Third. We gi'ow many new types of plants and have many new 

 breeds of animals. I can not discuss them all, but since my work is horti- 

 culture permit me to speak briefly of the new types of fruit. Within the 

 memor/ of middle-aged men, the culture of the raspberry, blackberry, 

 dewberry, gooseberiy, and cranberry has come into existence. From one 

 or two sorts of grapes and native piilms half a century ago, we have ad- 

 vanced to as many hundred sorts. So much from the wild fruits of the 

 woods in a half century! What may we expect in the future from others 

 now coming into cultivation? Many foreign plants and fruits have come 

 to us in recent years. Russia, Cliina, and .Tapan have contributed most. 

 Many of these have proved good in themselves. l)ut their numerous and 

 variable progeny, better adapted to our conditions, promise still greater 

 rewards. 



Fourth. There has been a great increase in the number of varieties 

 of our cultivated plants. So great is the number of new sorts that we may 

 say that our fruits, farm crops and vegetables are not those of our fathers. 

 Old people love to tell us that the new products are no better than those 

 of their day. But surely it may be said that they are good, that they 

 serve new and more demands, that they have widened tlie field of agri- 

 culture, and that, in general, the tendency is toward betterment, and that 

 is the main thing. 



