No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 309 



and to all of whom T am debtor, has given me opportunities to mark 

 the strong points as well as observe and depreciate the weak ones. 

 To the end that I might speak a word, that would help some of the 

 younger men, that they in their day — which is right upon them, for 

 we of the old guard, in less than a decade will have put off the 

 harness — may do better work than we ever did. For the Institutes 

 of the future, with a trained class of hearers will demand a class of 

 instructors far beyond those who have gone before. We have laid 

 the foundation but it is for you to rear the superstructure. I was 

 speaking to our ex-Director Smith at one time about the men whom 

 we had tried and apparently found wanting, and I said, "Perhaps 

 we have been too critical. Think what we were when we started." 

 He replied, "You forget. Van, that the people took from us twenty 

 yeais ago, — because they knew no better, — what they wdll not tol- 

 erate to-da\." Surely he was right, for I would indeed pity the 

 audience as w^ell as the speaker, who had to submit to what we were 

 able to give in those formative days. 



Thcrefoi'e, anything that I may say which may seem critical, is 

 very likely a criticism that I have sometime had laid at my own 

 door. All is spoken in the spirit of brotherly kindness, if you will 

 so receive it and if on my return, or in the years to come, I can 

 feel that any word spoken here to-day, has helped any one of you 

 to do more efficient work, and to have higher standards, and keener 

 conceptions of your practice and opportunities, I shall feel well 

 repaid. For nothing am I more gTateful than for the w^ords spoken 

 in season by some of those early associates, to wliom I have referred. 

 In the quiet of our rooms, after the day was done, calling attention 

 TO a loose or incorrect statement, a faulty or weak presentation, an 

 unfortunate illustration or story, or some mannerism, that persisted 

 in, would have been fixed. Of course some of them hurt at the time — 

 for like all young men, I naturally thought I was a Bonargares, but 

 what measure of success that has come to me T attribute largely, to 

 the pruning knife, which they so nicely and so kindly used, and the 

 high standard they set up. For they were giants in those days and 

 their high standards I have never seen sur])assed. 



With all this in mind I had the boldness to give Director Martin 

 the above, as one of the subjects upon which I might talk. Yet I 

 was after all appalled, when I saw that he had selected it. He hav- 

 ing so selected, and being with you in the flesh, I shall therefore give 

 you my message, in faith — that it mnj be received with kindness, — 

 in hope that it may be of profit, — in charity that thinks no evil, — 

 and with fidelitv to what I feel within me to be the truth. 



THE MAN 



There are many things required of a good institute instructor; 

 but first and above all must be tJw man. He may be, should be, many 

 things, but all else will be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, 

 except he is a success at home. ]>y success I do not mean, he must 

 have attained a competency. For many a man has made money, who 

 is far from a success, but that he must be actually doing the things 

 of which he speaks and doing them in such a way that he can 

 speak to his own neighbors with the same force with which he speaks 

 to strangers. This I make the first requisite of any man or woman 



