204 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



this importunate question we go back to the soil and its products 

 that all men are dependent upon it. 



Now, you have met here during these coming days to discuss 

 these matters which are nearly related to the questions of the farm- 

 ing industry and all those other subjects that are related to the 

 industry of farming, and they are many. I think we are coming 

 to see more and more that the occupation of the farmer is not so 

 much a matter of routine as once taken to be. We are coming 

 to see more and more that it must be treated in a scientific way, 

 and we are beginning to see that it is not an occupation in which 

 any one man, be he ever so much of an enthusiast, can engage with 

 success; but to farm successfully he must have a more scientific 

 knowledge of those things which enter into it and to the means 

 of securing the best production from the soil, and so you are here 

 this week to discuss those questions in a practical way, in a way 

 that brings them within the reach and understanding of the every- 

 day farmers in this and other communities. There have been per- 

 sons who have discussed in a theoretical way some of our agricul- 

 tural matters, questions that are interesting from a theoretical stand- 

 point but yet not wholly practical. Possibly you have all read that 

 story that illustrates that class of articles, of the man who read a 

 very learned paper before some gathering. He had been reading 

 about the dehorning of cattle and so he wrote a very learned article 

 on the practicability of the dehorning of hydraulic rams and, of 

 course, it made a great hit with the farmers in attendance; and 

 this is about the measure of some of the articles that are written 

 or deal with farming in a theoretical way, they are wholly im- 

 practical. You are here to-day to discuss these things as practical 

 means, to deal with all these questions of the farming industry in 

 a practical way that will bring them down and reduce them to the 

 farmer's standpoint. 



Now, gentlemen, for all these reasons we welcome you to our 

 midst. We hope that you will find your stay here pleasant, so 

 pleasant, that in your future years you will never forget it and 

 our town. If I could do it, I would like to present to you on a 

 silver platter the keys of our city that would unlock to you every- 

 thing that is good. I don't mean by that that you will find this a 

 wide open town, because we don't pride ourselves as the Mayor of 

 San Francisco, who on the eve of a great pugilistic exhibition that 

 IS scheduled to take place there shortly, has sent a statement across 

 this country that San Francisco is not a closed town. I don't 

 mean we are going to open up things in this way. We have tried 

 to keep this a God-fearing, moral community and we hope to do that 

 in large degree, and when we say that we welcome you to our com- 

 munity and all good in it we wish to be understood in the proper 

 sense as welcoming you to those things which are righteous and up- 

 lifting. Our Chairman has told you of our schools and industrial 

 institutions, all of which, if you have the time, will invite and I 

 think interest you in an examination into them and their workings. 

 We have plenty of churches here. We are probably better equipped 

 with schools than almost any little city of our size in the State. 

 They are very modern and in the lead and our teachers are bril- 

 liant instructors, and so we might go over all our interests. We 

 have some large industries here and in those things we think you 



