No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 145 



We will, however, consider very briefly the ways of other men 

 who have been considered competent, bnt who have been led from 

 darkness into light, that success comes not by the exercise of more 

 muscle, and working more hours of the day with the muscles, but 

 by applying brain properly; by applying labor saving methods; by 

 applying that which would, save material, and by utilizing material 

 in new ways. Some of you have been visiting the paper mills and 

 the silk mills; and I need not stop to suggest to you what you saw 

 there for saving labor, in making one pair of hands with brains do a 

 great deal more than fifteen or twenty pairs of hands did thirty or 

 forty years ago, and in some instances doing more than forty or 

 fifty could have done at the time mentioned; and, furthermore, the 

 ability to turn into white sheets of printing paper pieces of wood 

 that twenty-five years ago we burned up, because we did not know 

 what to do with it. On the farm we have this same field for the 

 application of those methods— not as large, perhaps— by which 

 manufacturers have been able to thrive in the face of competition. 



Having merely outlined the thoughts which I have been accus- 

 tomed, under the same title, to give to others, I will close with an 

 anecdote, which some of you have heard, but which will serve to il- 

 lustrate somewhat my idea of the present as compared with the 

 past, and the methods which the farmer must use if he would suc- 

 ceed. Some years ago the father of a gentleman, known, I think, to 

 nearly all of you, was on a visit to the Sahara. The late Senator Ger- 

 ard C. Brown's father was one of the first men to engage in the 

 business of purchasing wild animals for the menageries of this and 

 other lands. On one occasion he was traveling over a part of the 

 Sahara Desert with some men, going to a place to get supplies. 

 He was the only man supplied with the best fire-arms. He was for- 

 tunate in having in his possession one of the most modern weapons, 

 a newly invented magazine gun. About mid-day he was attracted 

 by a number of dark objects appearing above the horizon. As they 

 came somewhat closer, he found them to be men mounted on horse- 

 back; and, turning to his men, said to one of them, "Billy, who are 

 those men?" The man replied, "They are hostile Arabs." Now, 

 anv one who knows what a hostile Arab is, also knows that the 

 band coming toward them was a band of thieves and murderers. 

 After thinking a moment, Mr. Brown turned to his interpreter, and 

 said to him: "Billy, I wish you would shout to those people, and 

 tell them that they had better pass us by; as we are out on business, 

 and it is not worth their while to disturb us." The interpreter did 

 as he was told, but without any effect, for the Arabs formed for 

 attack. Their method of warfare is to ride in such a manner as to 

 circle around the party they are about to attack, gradually closing 



10—7—1900 



