No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 289 



few ideal lanueis. What a vast dillereuce hi attractiveness the 

 country would present, if we had none of the former. It would 

 make our abode a '^Garden of Eden," from whence our sons and 

 daughters would hesitate to leave for a life in the city or town. 



The ideal farmer's success may be attributed to (1) intelligence; 

 (2) attention in detail to all the branches of his vocation; (3) business 

 methods. 



First, intelligence is the prime factor which produces in. all callings 

 of life. You will notice that the intelligent merchant, mechanic and. 

 even the laborer, possesses an advantage over their ignorant compet- 

 itors. The farmer is no exception to this rule. It was the intelli- 

 gent mind that has set the wheels of the great inventions of the nine- 

 teenth century into motion; that builds the ships that plow the ocean 

 from continent to continent, with its thousands of tons of freight and 

 passengers in five days; that gave us the fine passenger transporta- 

 tion and light our houses and streets by electricity; that discovered 

 and solved the scientific problems which are of such vast importance 

 ro the agriculturist. Yes, in short, all progress the world has ever 

 made must be attributed to intelligence. Daniel Webster said that 

 it requires greater talent, more knowledge and better judgment to 

 be a good farmer than to be a great statesman. The person that 

 wants to be a ideal farmer is not slow in detecting this. He may not 

 hold a diploma of a high school, much less of a college, yet his men- 

 tal capacity must be improved, in order that he can comprehend the 

 researches made by the scientists, and apply them to his profession. 



You may ask, how can farmers improve mentally? I answer, that 

 there is no class of citizens from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from 

 Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, that has greater facilities, that is more 

 favored through legislation toward this aim, than the farmer. For 

 an example, let us take our owm State. We have our college, where- 

 with is connected the Experiment Station, the income of v/hich is 

 derived from the proceeds of the sale of the public lands donated to 

 the State by the general government for college purposes. The 

 State holds these proceeds in trust, for which it has given its bond for 

 1500,000, on which it pays interest to the college at the rate of 6 

 per cent., or |30,000 per annum. Under the provisions of the act of 

 Congress, approved August 30, 1890, the college got an additional 

 sum of $15,000 per year, to be increased |1,000 annually until it 

 amounted to .|25,000. So that at present the income is, through leg- 

 islation, 155,000 per year. To this college you can go or your sons and 

 take a four years course in agriculture for the nominal expense of 

 f 50 and board per year. Knowing that the farmer upon whom duty 

 and responsibility already rested, could not avail himself of a four 

 years course, our wise and thoughtful educators instituted a short 

 course, consisting of twelve weeks, during the time when farm work 

 19— G— 1901 



