No. 6. DE3PARTMENT OF AGRICUI^TURE. 271 



Llit'ii iiiii|)U' funds must be provided fur i-arryiuj^ on the work. 

 "There is that seattereth and yet increaseth and there is that with- 

 hokleth more than that is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Write 

 in kirge characters over the doors ot every building devoted to the 

 training of farmers — Millions for improving the farms and the 

 farmers but not one unjust cent for the millionaires. 



This is fair, for from time immemorial, except for the last few 

 decades, almost nothing has been done for the greatest industry 

 the world has ever known. 



"That art on which a thousand million of men are dependent for 

 their sustenance, and two hundred millions of men expend their 

 daily toils must be the most important of all, the parent and pre- 

 cursor of all other arts. In every county, then, and at every period, 

 tiie investigation of the principles on which the rational practice 

 of this art is founded ought to have commanded the principal atten- 

 tion of the greatest minds." ]SIo matter how large provision may 

 Jh' made for investigation and instruction in agriculture it will take 

 a hundred years before the rural population receives full educational 

 justice. 



Naturally, your people have paid most attention to the iron and 

 'oal industries. From now on agriculture should receive most at- 

 tention. In three generations your coal will be nearly or quite 

 exhausted. That means that the iron and many other industries 

 will languish. It means that new fields will be sought where fuel 

 Is abundant. It means that there will be twice as many railways 

 as can find profitable employment, unless they can be employed in 

 carrying agricultural and forest products to the sea-board for ex- 

 portation. But will there be any timber forest, or will your forest 

 furnish only a meager supply for fire-wood? 



If you practice farm mining, as too many are now doing, the land 

 like the mine will be measurably exhausted in a century. But if re- 

 .eiprocal farming be practiced then the soil will remain in its place 

 and be productive for untold centuries. But you will say that agri- 

 culture is not as profitable as many of the other industries. I think 

 that this is true in manv cases and this because farming is not ra- 

 tionally carried on. As I write these lines I find on my table two 

 letters from which I make brief extracts: 



''We have had about fifty one-half blood winter lambs. Have 

 been shipping some time. The price is so good I wish I had a few 

 hundred more. I purchased the farm just across the road at $140 

 per acre; have been offered §160 for it. I picked 1,040 barrels of 

 apples from the orchard on the farm purchased and 1,3G0 barrels 

 from the home orchard. I sold these 3,000 barrels for $G,000. I 

 am not anxious to sell my farms at any price." Another man on 

 the extreme end of Long Island one hundred miles from market 



