No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 249 



but object lessons, representing the best methods of advanced farm- 

 ing. Many of us think our farms are ''run out." We can't make 

 both ends meet. The common cry with such people is "farming don't 

 pay," and it is literally true. Let the same individual engage in any 

 other business and the story would not change. Year by year, 

 through the College of Agriculture, the Experiment Station, the 

 State Department of Agriculture and the system of the Farmers' In- 

 stitutes as now conducted, we are improving conditions. Results on 

 every hand show clearly the wisdom of instruction along these lines. 



Is there anything that gives greater dignity to man than a com- 

 plete realization of the power of being able to do, and do it well. "No 

 joy is greater or more lasting than that received by doing well with 

 the complete being, — brain, eye, hands, will and judgment — all tools, 

 God-given tools, to be trained and used." In times, not long past, 

 the best energy of our country was devoted to trade activities, to 

 material welfare; but in the process of evolution, of the differentia- 

 tion of institutions, other ideas in education must prevail. Many 

 people are beginning to realize that one object of education should be 

 to qualify the individual to enjoy life fully in whatever environment 

 he may be cast, while at the same time develop a capacity to achieve 

 material success. Such capacity depends, in part^ upon discovering 

 at an early age one's best bent or peculiar fitness for some special 

 vocation, and then training for this purpose not only the mind, but 

 also the hand and the eye, indeed, the whole organism and forming 

 the practical judgment as well as the power to reason theoretically. 



We are daily impressed with the multitude whose life's work is 

 more or less unsuccessful. No place, I am sorry to say, is this more 

 apparent than in some rural districts. The inability^, however, of 

 book-learning alone to train the judgment to deal with practical 

 affairs is everywhere recognized. Its failure to develop originality is 

 admitted. How true this is about farm life. Mere book studies are 

 also deficient in training, earnestness of purpose and tenacity of ap- 

 plication. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than when applied to 

 farm management. 



That "life is a search after power," is as true to-day as when Emer- 

 son wrote it. Personal power is to a man what steam is to an engine. 

 If a man's knowledge is extensive and accurate then his influence, 

 that is, his power over others, outside of example, is the power to 

 convince or persuade, a power largely dependent upon an ability to 

 think clearly, combined with a readiness of speech and accuracy and 

 attractiveness of expression in presenting the truth. A knowledge 

 of technical facts, combined with skill of the hand and eye does not 

 necessarily give the power which is essential to large success. There 

 is no power in a fact or in a technical process. The power lies in the 

 man and its exercise comes in the use of what he knowa. 

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