1902.] DISCUSSION. 69 



■" how " man come first, and I would have the " why " man 

 follow it up so as to make a clean job of it. I would per- 

 sonally put the " how " man — the practical man — first, and 

 let the scientific man — the "why" man — follow him, if I 

 may put it that way. I understand that is not the program 

 mapped out in many of our farmers' institutes, but I believe 

 that the " how " man should have the right of way, he should 

 go ahead and let the scientific man, or the " why " man, follow 

 him. I will grant that the average farmer is in great need of 

 information, and in need of scientific information, but one 

 difficulty of the scientific man, or the " why " man, is that he 

 seems to forget that he is talking to a kindergarten class in 

 science. Consequently he talks away up over the heads of 

 his audience. We do not live among the stars. We hope to 

 some day, but at present we are all down on the ground. I 

 have seen men go away from an institute with their heads 

 fairly bursting with technical scientific information, and, at 

 the same time, in a condition which reminded me of the story 

 of the darkey who went into the town with the entire proceeds 

 of sale of his cotton crop in his pocket. A traveling agent for 

 a carriage factory got hold of the man, and do you know 

 when he got through the carriage man had the darkey's 

 money, and the darkey had a first-class high-top buggy. The 

 darkey had no horse, and so he got between the thills of the 

 carriage and walked away hauling that top buggy after him. 

 It has seemed to me sometimes when I have listened to a 

 scientific man talking to an audience of common farmers that 

 they went away from that meeting almost like that darkey, 

 hauling the high-top buggy himself, because that information 

 as it was put to them was almost useless in their everyday 

 life and work upon the farm, the same as that high-top buggy- 

 was to the darkey. The most useful speaker is the one who 

 succeeds in interesting his hearers and eliciting honest ques- 

 tions. Then is when you find out what the farmers want. 

 Shut off the man who talks too much, and give every man an 



