No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 519 



1 have uo doubt you will agree with nie that these annual reunions 

 delight us all. 



My duties have taken me over fourteen or lit'teen different states 

 in the last nine months. I find one sentiment that prevails every- 

 where. The people of the country generally are coining to recog- 

 nize agriculture as the greatest industry that we have and, I think, 

 there has never been a time in the history of the country when 

 there was more interest taken, by intelligent people, than there 

 if" just now in agriculture. In order to give you some idea of what 

 is going on I will state, that I was down in Knoxville, Tennessee, 

 last summer and attended a meeting there in which there were 

 twelve hundred farmers who had come up to the University at 

 Knoxville. They were about the finest looking people I ever saw. 

 They remained four days and had meetings each forenoon and even- 

 ing and visited the Experiment Station. The business of the Uni- 

 versity w^as suspended and the professors devoted themselves to en- 

 tertaining the visitors. Papers were read and discussed at the 

 regular sessions, and they had a series of very enjoyable and pro- 

 fitable meetings. 



I was down in Mississippi a little later, and there four hundred 

 farmers came up to a meeting at their University and silent four 

 days there. The University turned its buildings open and the vis- 

 itors lived in the University building and boarded in the University 

 halls. 



I was also in South Carolina, and there two thousand farmers 

 came up to their University and staid three days, showing how much 

 they are interested in the work of agriculture. 



I have been out in Wyoming, at Sheridan. There were men 

 present who traveled fifteen hundred miles to come to the meeting. 

 They had a display of agricultural products. Some of those exhibits 

 weie carried over the country one hundred and fifty miles before 

 they came to a railroad. So the work is going on everywhere. 



Last week I was out in Nebraska and saw a sight that did me 

 good. I had been invited to talk to a company of students con- 

 nected with the University. I supposed that they had a small agri- 

 cultural organization among their students, such as we find in East- 

 ern colleges. When I came into the hall there were four hundred 

 young men; two hundred out of them belonged to the University in 

 the regular course, and two hundred v\'ere graduates of the institu- 

 tion who had come back to this meeting. It was a great sight! The 

 next evening the hall of the University in Lincoln was filled. There 

 were anywhere from twelve hundred to two thousand people 

 present. So everywhere — in Ohio, West Virginia and other states, 

 there is this great interest manifested in the development of the 

 agriculture of this country. As 1 said, there has never been a time 



