78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



close to these men in order to do them good. They have not 

 been taught to observe closely. They jump into conclusions 

 instead of reasoning to them. 



Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am very glad of the oppor- 

 tunity and the privilege to come before such an audience as I 

 see before me, but I never leave the subject, no matter what 

 it may be, until I have tried to make some moral application of 

 it. I want to make this application in this instance. I believe 

 you have no business to send men out on your farmers' 

 institute work unless those men feel down in the depths of 

 their hearts a real interest in their work, and that they ought 

 to do something to help to restore and build up the abandoned 

 farms of Connecticut. The restoration and the building up 

 of those abandoned farms is as much a moral development as 

 a physical one. I tell you my friends you have got to go out 

 and deal with people who are hopeless. Many of these men 

 back on the farms have made a hopeless struggle to climb 

 aw^ay from their environment. The institute is one of the 

 greatest means to help them to get away from that, to inspire 

 them with new courage, to build up their spirits and help them 

 to adopt new methods for their improvement. Many of them 

 have made a short struggle to get away, to do better, and have 

 then fallen back, and unless some new means is taken to 

 rouse them to renewed efforts they will never make any prog- 

 ress. You must go to those men and make them understand 

 that it is a part of your duty and mine to bear upon our 

 shoulders a fair share of the burden of sorrow and trouble 

 that God has put in this world. Tell them that a man may 

 carry his share like a millstone about his neck if he will, but 

 that when others help him all his life's prospects undergo a 

 change. In that way, and in that way only, I believe, can 

 we uplift these people and raise American agriculture to the 

 height that it should attain and must attain. 



The Vice-President. Now, gentlemen, you have heard 

 a good deal relative to farmers' institutes. Some of you may 



