No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 251 



wholly by surprise and liaA^e only had since last June to prepare it. I 

 will have to read it: 



THE INFLUENCE OF A LOCAL INSTITUTE WORKER. 



By Mb. T. D Uahman, Editor, Nalional Stockman and Fanner, Pittubura, Pa. 



The history of the world has not recorded the annals of a more 

 worthy cause than that of man in his efforts to subdue the earth and 

 make the desert blossom like the rose. An all-wise Creator decreed 

 that ''man should eat bread by the sweat of his face." Unwise crea- 

 tures have in their hearts condemned this decree and have, from all 

 time, endeavored to reduce the degree of this sentence to the mini- 

 mum or have it stricken entirely from the statutes. The former en- 

 deavor, in the light of modern ideas, is commendable, but the latter 

 will never be accomplished, as it is a decree of God which cannot be 

 changed. 



Agriculture always has been and always will be the foundation of 

 the j)rosperity and happiness of the inhabitants of this earth. Time 

 does not even permit us to refer to the crude methods and the hard 

 problems of sustaining the lives of the populace during the early 

 years of the world's history. Men living to-day remember the wooden 

 mould-board plow,, the flail and the spinning-wheel. Scarcely a gen- 

 eration ago the crude implements and methods of the Syrians and 

 Egyptians w^ere common in the rural districts of our own beloved 

 Commonwealth, and I doubt not to-night that in some of the remote 

 nooks and corners of our State the soil is tilled, the harvests gathered 

 and the grain threshed and winnowed in almost the same manner that 

 this work was performed in the days of Pharaoh. 



We are living in a wonderful age. The rapid strides of improve- 

 ment and development are seen on every side and in every direction. 

 Improvement is the watchword of the hour. In every line of work 

 the command to go forward is heard. The snail's pace has given way 

 to the speed of the railway train and the swift trolley line. Only a 

 few years ago we were content to count a day's journey but a few 

 miles. Now we think nothing of crossing a continent in a few days 

 or skipping over the face of our greatest oceans within a week or 

 tw^o. W^e cannot stand still. A few moments resting on our oars 



