432 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



that there are other kinds of readers. Some lack the common 

 sense necessary to size up a situation, or worse still, they form 

 wrong opinions. Such things are dangerous. They not only lead 

 to a waste of time and money, but they are discouraging. 



As an example: A farmer living in Western Pennsylvania may 

 read of the big profit made on the fertile farms of Lancaster county 

 in raising tobacco. He jumps at the conclusion he can do the same 

 thing. He tries it, fails, and pays for his folly of not using his 

 brain as well as his eyes. He may read these reports but he lacks 

 that useful little article called judgment. Again, everybody is more 

 or less prejudiced when they read. They only remember the things 

 that suit their own ideas and forget all else. They set down all 

 writers as fools who do not say things the way they think it ought to 

 be. Such men need a severe training in the art of reading. They 

 generally get it and pay dearly for it. That is why so many n^.en 

 are poor and don't know why. They are always paying for ois 

 takes that they never knew they had made. 



But it isn't the reading of books or papers alone that edu( tes a 

 man. Some of our very successful farmers never learned their 

 alphabet. They never had an opportunity to learn to read. They 

 got their education from the hard school of experience. They 

 learned by hard knocks and bitter trials what would work and 

 what would not. The secret of success with such men, as well as 

 with men who could read, lies in the fact that they carry a large 

 amount of gray matter under their hats. They are the kind that 

 see "sermons in stones, books in the running brooks and good in 

 everything." 



Take the second, in the curriculum suggested, writing. This 

 seems to be a lost art to manv farmers. Thev find no time for it. 

 have no occasion to use it, except, perhaps, to sign notes for gold 

 bricks or lightning rod contracts. Pity the man who neglects this 

 important part of his education. If the first man referred to who 

 made over |.j,OOU on hay had not had the courage to write a few 

 letters he never could have done what he did. With our cheap 

 postage, our free rural delivery routes and our telephone systems 

 all over the country, there is no way of preventing the practically 

 educated farmer from doing business with as great dispatch and in 

 as systematic a way as do our railroad magnates or our iron kings. 

 I am speaking of the art of writing and not of penmanship. The 

 man who can express his ideas clearly, pointedly and forcibly on 

 paper has an education at his command that can be made invaluable 

 to him. The experience of handling from 200 to 1,500 letters per day 

 from farmers leads me to believe that T know this statement is true. 

 Very few, even among those classed as highly educated, know how 

 to write a good letter. The business among rural residents could 



