*7* ANNUAL REPORTl OF THE Off. Doc. 



the last ten years, all over the United States, a revival of afjjricnltural 

 interest, and whether you go to Texas or to North Dakota, go to the 

 east or to the far west, you find the same feeling of interest every- 

 where. People, the best people, in all of the States, without respect 

 to their profession, are beginning to seriously consider what can be 

 done to advance the interests of agriculture. 



The meeting that I attended at Fargo, had, one evening by actual 

 count, nine hundred people in the room, and perhaps seven hundred 

 of these w'ere farmers who had come down from the Red River Val- 

 ley, up from South Dakota, and over the river from Minnesota. They 

 stayed for several days, paying their hotel bills, attending the meet- 

 ings, beginning in the morning at nine o'clock, running up until 

 twelve, beginning at half-past one and continuing until half-past 

 four, and then again at seven o'clock and going on as late as ten. So 

 that even in the far north, you find agricultural people and others 

 awake to this great interest. 



I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the farmers' institutes have had as 

 much to do with awakening this interest as any other influence that 

 we have. Until recently the farmers were not reached by any agency 

 except the agricultural papers, and many of them did not even take 

 an agricultural paper, but within twenty years the institutes have 

 come in and have taken out into the country districts information — 

 scientific information — of a very efficient kind. The result has been 

 that the farmers have come now to realize that there is a vast amount 

 of valuable scientific information in existence which they need. There 

 is also a knowledge of the fact that it is possible to take this scien- 

 tific information and impart it to practical farmers who have very 

 little if any scientific training, in a way that they can use it. These 

 two facts have now come to be understood by the great body of 

 agricultural people. The efl:'ect has been to make people feel that, in- 

 stead of farming being a mere manual occupation, it is highly scien- 

 tific, and everywhere among the more intelligent agricultural people, 

 you find that they have settled down to this idea, that the whole 

 of agriculture lies in education; in the kind of education that enables 

 men to understand their business; the kind that we call agricultural 

 education. Men are coming now to feel that if they are to be saved 

 from the ills that beset agriculture, their hope lies in education, in 

 their own better knowledge of their calling. In other words, it is 

 just coming to be realized by agricultural people that the man who is 

 to succeed in this business, must do precisely as men do who succeed 

 in other business, they must acquaint themselves with the business; 

 they must know their business. Fortunately a great deal has been 

 discovered, and a great deal of material is at hand, which has been 

 prepared by men who are thoroughly conversant with the agricul- 

 tural conditions of the country, and who are at the same time scien- 

 tific, who are adapting scientific truths to the needs of the everyday 

 farmer. 



Pennsylvania is not behind in this work, although she is not at the 

 front, I am sorry to say. I think she is going to be at the front very 

 soon. We have just waked up in our State to this fact, that if we 

 are to be classed with people in the front rank of the states of the 

 Union in agriculture, we must do the same things that these other 

 states are doing. We must foster agricultural education, and by that 



