314 ANNUAL/ RBfPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



workable shape, they would prove a success. To know, and to know 

 what we can do with what we know, this is science. Is there any 

 reason why the farmer should be prejudiced against it? 



THE FARMER AS A CITIZEN. 



With the broadening outlook of the farmer consequent upon the 

 improvement in agricultural methods, and this improvement has 

 been greater than we art apt to think until we go back a way in 

 history and compare the present with the past, he is becoming more 

 and more interested in the things that relate to government, na- 

 tional, state and local. Becoming more and more a factor in public 

 affairs, a bigger man and a better citizen. This is as it should be. 

 Too long has the man on the farm been willing that the lawyers 

 and the business men should run affairs of state; too long has he 

 been content to take his economic and political ideas at second 

 hand, with the inevitable result that when false principles were 

 advocated and adopted he was powerless to assert himself and de- 

 mand a better order of things. The result is that we have fastened 

 upon the country a system that makes it possible for the combines 

 in the city to fix such low prices upon the products of the farm as 

 to render the loss of the farmer frequent, while they fix the price 

 of the same article to the consumer at a figure so high as to dis- 

 courage consumption. Viewed from no higher standpoint and his 

 own financial .welfare, therefore, the farmer finds it necessary that 

 he shall take his full share of the responsibilities of citizenship, and 

 develops a mental grasp and a resource in information that will 

 enable to command the attention and respect of his fellow-citizens 

 in every walk of life. The agricultural college and the farmers' 

 institute are doing great things for the farmer in this direction, and 

 it is gratifying to note how rapidly are coming into public notice 

 men from the farms who are distinguishing themselves by their 

 ability to discuss with largeness of view the important questions 

 of the day. When the American farmer takes his rightful place 

 in the affairs of the country there will be less to complain of in gov- 

 ernment, and justice will be its dominating principle. 



REPORT OF VETERINARIAN. 



BY DB. Leonard Pearson. 



I have to report to you as Veterinarian of the State Board of 

 Agriculture in regard to the health of the animals in the last year, 

 and the work of the Veterinary Sanitary Division of the State 

 Board of Agriculture. The work of this Division has been directed 

 against tuberculosis, as has been the case in all previous years. It 

 is not that other diseases do not exist, or that we do not care, but 

 tuberculosis prevailed so largely, and made such inroads on the 

 livestock throughout the State, that the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture felt called upon to devote its energies to fighting this disease 

 more than any other. Nor is it that tuberculosis is becoming more 



