igo2.\ DISCUSSION. 73 



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Mr. True, and he will come to find out. In places where no 

 such list can be obtained, the cards are sent to the local post- 

 master, and he is requested to put one in the farmer's mail. 

 That plan gives great satisfaction in Maine. It has brought 

 in hundreds of farmers to attend the meeting who would not 

 have attended without some such invitation. If somebody 

 had not gone to them like that they never would have come. 

 Now there are some people in this world who seem dis- 

 posed to think that these farmers' meetings ought to be run 

 as a sort of a close corporation, and as much of a personal 

 family matter as they can be. That is a mistake. You never 

 can have a good institute when it is run in that way. Some- 

 times they have allowed the impression to go out that men 

 who are not well dressed are not wanted. Sometimes they 

 have said: " We do not want any man to come to our meeting 

 with his rubber boots on. We do not want a man to come 

 just as he has cleaned up his cows." I tell you, gentlemen, that 

 is the kind of man you do want. That is just the class of men 

 you do want. The chances are that after those men have 

 attended three or four times they will take off their rubber 

 boots. If they come, no matter if they do come in their 

 rubber boots, if they come with an honest purpose to learn, 

 they are just exactly the men you want. I know there are 

 those people that seem disposed to think that a farmers' in- 

 stitute should be run as a close corporation, or as a family 

 matter, but I think they are wrong. They claim that by 

 bringing in the lame and the blind and the halt of agriculture 

 we are simply educating them to produce better and larger 

 crops, and thus increase the competition of these properous 

 men who are now producing good crops. That is an argu- 

 ment I have heard people make. I do not know what you 

 think about that ; maybe you hold to the same opinion, but if 

 you do, I do not. Personally you cannot make me believe in 

 any such theory. You cannot m.ake me believe, and I refuse 

 to believe, that any class of farmers can ever be permanently 



