184 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Due. 



The CHAIRMAN: This ends the program for the evening, and I 

 have no doubt that it would be a very v^ise thing to adjourn promptly, 

 with our minds all filled with what we have just heard; but we have 

 got something else on hand. We are all to go to State College to- 

 morrow. I have already announced that we go on a special train 

 having here at 8.15 sharp, to-morrow morning. 



On motion, the meeting adjourned to 9.30 A. M. to-morrow at State 

 College. 



State College, Pa., Wednesday, 9.30 A. M., Oct. 12, 1904. 

 iMeeting was called to order by J. S. Burns, Chairman. 



The CHAIRMAN: The first thing that we have on the program this 

 morning, is an address of welcome by President George W. Atherton 

 of the State College. 



Dr. Atherton's address is as follows: 



ADDRESS. 



Bv Dk. G. W. AlHliKTUx, President Slate College, State College, Pa. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not propose to take 

 much of your time at this stage of the proceedings, and certainly 

 not later, but I have very great pleasure in welcoming so large a 

 representative body to spend a few sessions with us in the consid- 

 eration of questions that are vital, not only to the industry in which 

 we are all interested, but which are vital to the wellbeing of the 

 whole nation. 



I shall not dwell upon the common-place statement that agricul- 

 ture and agricultural industry lies at the foundation of all other in- 

 dustries. Those are matters too frequently recognized and too fre- 

 quently' mentioned among ourselves to need repetition; but I go back 

 of all that. I regard the rural class — not simply those engaged in 

 agriculture but those who live in the rural regions — as the hope of 

 the Republic. - The great cities with their feverish, anxious and 

 hurrying life, wear out too fast, and if the great cities were not con- 

 stantly recruited by a continual stream of life from the country dis- 

 tricts — the rural districts — they would very soon go to decay. Now, 



