1902.] LESSONS FROM THE PAN-AMERICAN. 2O9 



helped to establish our place among other nations, first, as a 

 manufacturing nation, with ability to compete with the other 

 nations of the world, and secondly, it showed our ability to 

 supply the world with needed agricultural products. When 

 we come down, a few years later, to the exposition at Atlanta, 

 it set forth more strikingly than anything else the agricultural 

 possibilities of the South and the importance of the negro 

 race in the development of those possibilities. The display 

 in agricultural lines made by the negro as a race and the 

 great work that has been done by two or three institutions 

 for the uplifting of the negro were set forth most prominently 

 at that exposition. 



In a similar way the exposition at Buffalo this past summer 

 illustrated our growth and our capacity as a nation in one 

 particular line, electrical engineering, and the industries that 

 have been the outgrowth of electrical invention and en- 

 gineering. - 



In a like manner these great expositions have helped to 

 establish our possibilities as an agricultural nation, and espe- 

 cially to show the agricultural resources of the different parts 

 of the country. For example, that vast tract of land in the 

 valleys of the Mississippi and its 'tributaries is noted for the 

 production of cereals; and the exhibits from the states located 

 in that region helped to substantiate their reputation in this 

 line. On the other hand, they could not keep pace with the 

 Eastern states in the exhibits of vegetables and fruits. These 

 special products showed the line of agriculture for which the 

 Eastern states are adapted. In a way similar the Southern 

 states were able to show what they could do in special lines 

 of agriculture. Some of the Southern states outstripped 

 many of the Northern states, especially in the excellence and 

 variety of their products. This was at first surprising to me, 

 but when I stopped to consider I soon saw the reasons. I 

 was particularly impressed with the wonderful variety of 

 products exhibited from Louisiana, but after a moment I 

 thought, " Louisiana is favored in the matter of climate." 

 For example, she can grow everything that we can grow, and 

 a great many things we cannot grow, because of our peculiar 

 climate. She can raise sugar cane, sorghum, and alfalfa to 

 good advantage. She can grow a large number of products 

 which are particularly adapted to warm climate, and which 



Agr. — 14 



