No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



269 



iu^-. ('an you imagine any complicated manufacturing industry that 

 could go on for more tlian a single year without finding out which of 

 the particular branches of the undertaking was carried on at a profit 

 and which at a loss? An establishment may manufacture iron, 

 wire, nails and screws. If, like the farmer, only one single entry 

 book or no books at all were kept and they never took stock or 

 an inventory, the windows of the factory would soon be covered 

 with boards kept in place with their own screws. 



The activities on most farms are as many and far more compli- 

 cated than are those carried on in an ordinary manufacturing es- 

 tablishment, yet on the farm guess-work is substituted for facts. 

 The farmer begins in the spring' by guessing it might be well to 

 plow up the old meadow or plant the back lot to potatoes and the 

 front lot to cabbage. In a week he begins to guess that he will 

 not plow the meadow nor plant cabbage. He has no well-matured 

 plan for th(^ year nor for the years to come. Why? Because he 

 is like the small child, ignorant for want of intellectual training. 

 Like the child, he is usually helpless because of his ignorance due 

 to lack of opportunity and insj)iration. Again, like the child, he 

 is selfish. Selfishness is the legitimate fruit of ignorance or a lack* 

 of training, hence farmers cannot be induced to co-operate. Each 

 wants his own corn harvester when one would do quite well for a 

 half dozen corn raisers. 



Who is to blame? Why, the leaders and directors of your educa- 

 tional system. We have been attempting, metaphorically, to train 

 a few boys so perfectly that if by any chance they should fall into 

 the water it is hoped they could swim. Would it not be better to 

 put them into the water and teach them how to swim? They 

 would certainly get the same technical training and more certainly 

 acquire the art of swimming. AVhy will we persist in educating 

 one boy's head and another boy's hands and produce, too often, two 

 monstrosities. The former will despise the latter, and the latter 

 will hate the former. Mistakes of the past rest with the leaders 

 in education; the mistakes of the future will rest with you. 



In a similar manner, what is transpiring in the forest domain 

 which I have tried to describe, is taking place on most of your 

 farms. True, here and there, a farm is being conducted more ra- 

 tionally and more profitably than formerly, but for one acre so 

 managed there are many that are steadily growing less productive. 

 Who is to arrest this depletion of the soil if the leaders are timid 

 and hestitating? What did your distinguished and able Governor 

 say a few days since? '"Wliatever tends to bring about an improve- 

 ment in the condition of the masses of mankind and assists in their 

 cultivation and elevation is an advantage to the State and should 

 be encouraged." And, again, he says, ''I suggest that the Legisla- 



