64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



all right if the manager will pay strict attention to these three 

 essentials. 



Now, in the first place, what about the speaker? Who is 

 a proper man? How can I picture the ideal speaker at the 

 farmers' institute? He is hard to find and he is hard to de- 

 fine. In one sense it seems to me that the man who goes 

 traveling about the country from one institute to another 

 should not only be a social man, but he ought to be as wise as 

 Solomon, as strong as Sullivan, he ought to have the diges- 

 tion of an ostrich, he ought to have the patience of Job. and 

 he ought to have the curiosity of the Queen of Sheba. There 

 are but few men of that quality, but that, to my mind, is the 

 ideal institute worker. We cannot hope to get all of those 

 qualities in one man. 



Another important question is, should that man be scien- 

 tific or practical? That is a great question before the mind 

 of farmers' institute managers — should that man be a prac- 

 tical man or a scientist? There are other questions. Should 

 he be old or young? Should he attempt to be funny, or 

 should he try to be serious? As a first requisite, I say that 

 that man should know just exactly what he is going to talk 

 about and he should be a man who talks through his head, 

 and not through his hat. 



I find in most states that the man best suited to meet the 

 demands of the situation is one who is not only a practical 

 farmer, a man of affairs upon the farm, but one who has 

 just exactly enough science so it will not be dangerous. You 

 know a little learning is mighty dangerous. The practical 

 man, the man who has had the plow handles in his own hand, 

 and who knows enough of science, and the application of 

 scientific principles, so that he will not be dangerous to the 

 others who listen to him, that man is probably the best insti- 

 tute worker on the whole, and especially so if he combines 

 certain other qualities I have referred to. On the whole, then,. 

 I think that man is about as good as the people can get 

 hold of. 



