No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 266 



minutes, aud sometimes you have half an hour, and sometimes you 

 have an hour aud a half, and you simply have to adjust yourself to 

 circumstances the best way you can. The Institute worker should 

 have his speech divided into heads, and have it so divided that he 

 reaches the climax at the end instead of the middle, as I have seen 

 men do, and then flounder round without knowing how to end it. 



I believe that every one will agree with me that we are all doing 

 the best we can, but we don't all agree on what that best is. I hold 

 in my hand here a copy of the speech of the President of the United 

 States, delivered at Lansing, Michigan, on Memorial Day, and if 

 you will read it you will find that the main problem to be solved is 

 to hit something when you shoot. I have watched Institute speakers 

 get up and talk, and everybody wondered what they were trying 

 to got at. They didn't shoot to hit. They had not spent any time 

 preparing that spc ech and getting it into shape. Very few men can 

 talk without adequate preparation. I can't myself. It won't do to 

 depend on the inspiration of the moment. Many a time I have gone 

 to places, to gatherings where speeches were made, and when they 

 called on me to make a speech I said, "This is so unexpected; I didn't 

 expect to be called on to make a speech," when I had spent hours 

 in preparing just that speech. But I tell you, my friends, that the 

 best speech a man can make is when he is coming home from having 

 made his first speech; then he thinks of all the things he could have 

 said, and didn't. I have gone home after making my speech, and de- 

 livered it to the rafters to improve it. I am willing to improve, I 

 would rather labor for a dollar and a quarter a day then for a dol- 

 lar; and, better still, I would rather get a dollar and a half without 

 hard labor. But now, to come to the point, as has been' said before, 

 a man, to be able to speak to the people, and teach them and inter- 

 est them, must be full of his subject. If he is full of his subject, he 

 will be able to say something about it, and only then. 



Now, regarding the third man at the Farmers' Institute, put him 

 on the program and help him along. Make him feel that he is neces- 

 sary to the work, and he will become necessary. He may not be 

 a brilliant success at first, but we mu.^t remember it is no easy task 

 for a young man just starting out to get up before a lot of men 

 whose hairs are white and tell them that some of the things they 

 have been doing all their lives are wrong, and to impress them along 

 the new lines of modern agriculture. I know that in the last nine 

 years that I have gone over the State of Pennsylvania, I would like 

 to hear some of the remarks that were made about me; I think I can 

 tell you some of them. When I get hold of a new idea I want to 

 hold it up until the man before me comes down, regardless of what 

 may be said about me; in fact, I think there must be something 

 wrong right now, because people are not talking about me. 



And I want to tell you another thing, my dear friends. The farm- 

 ers' Institute is in its infancy; but it is growing right along, and the 

 Farmers' Institute of the future, when it is grown, will be a wonder. 

 It will not only take in the country people, but the city man as well. 

 Why, I was at a Chautauqua last summer, where one-half of the 

 people were from the city, and I was afraid to talk, because my 

 message was to the farmers, and the manager told me, "Don't be 

 afraid; if you have anything to say, they will listen to you"; so I 

 got up and spoke, and told them I would not be offended if thev went 

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