No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUIIE. 313 



attain unto it," and they go home and feed corn meal and buy low 

 grade fertilizers as aforetime. 



A message, a clear distinct statement oi facts in simple hmguage, 

 backed up by the reasons loUi), is what tells. The man must have a 

 message. 1 here is a decidely ditlerence between a message and a talk. 

 Of the latter there are many. Of the former few. ISome men have 

 both. By a message, I mean, a clear deiinite knowledge of some 

 one or more subjects. One that enters into the very warp and woof 

 of his being, one which he feels will be a benefit to others, and into 

 which he puts himself. It may not always be presented from a rhetor- 

 ical standpoint, and though this is a serious defect, it is not fatal, but 

 that man will get his audience and give them something l(,o. A talk 

 may be ever so well rendered, but if the soul of the man is not in it, 

 and he is not speaking out of the depths of his experience, what he 

 says will go but little further than the four walls of the house in 

 which he is talking. Vou have a man in tins Slate, with wlumi I 

 have done much work. His use of the English language is awful, 

 althoiigh he has improved much in the last four years. He speaks 

 so rapidly and labors so hard when doing it, that it is often painful 

 for his audience. But that man has a message, and in spite of his 

 handicaps, people are alwaj-s glad to hear him, not once, but many 

 times. He always gives them something to carry away and they know 

 ho speaks of what he does know, and testifies what he Las seen. I 

 have seen him hold an audience of over five hundred cultivated people, 

 on such a commonplace topic, as a horse's foot or tooth. That man 

 is a ijower, and I always feel that I have a tower of strength when 

 he is on my force. 



Another experience: One j'oung man, a master of English and 

 a good dairyman, as well, spoke on butter making. He described 

 the cream, as a satin ribbon and the butter granules as beautiful gol- 

 den pellets. From a literary standpoint it was fine, but the farmer's 

 wife, whose cream Avould not churn, nor the Imtter gather, failed to 

 recognize in his glowing description, her unripe cream, or too soft, 

 or too hard butter. 



He was followed by a man with a message, ignorant so far as the 

 schools go. His bodily presence was weak. Some of his matter 

 was ridiculous, but people listened with bated breath when he de- 

 scribed the points of a dairy cow. He knew that he had a message. 

 These men were from the same neighborhood. Th3 first referred to — 

 a very dear friend of mine — rather looked down on his neii^hbor. At 

 the close of the session he came to me in wonder, and said, "Why he 

 got them and I did not ! Why was it ?" 



BREVITY 



Here is where we all fall down. We become so infused with our 

 subject, which grows upon us, that we find our hour all too short. 

 Except a pojmlar lecture, for the average institute address I am sure 

 forty-five minutes should be the limit, and I have laid down this rule 

 for myself and corps for the coming season. However excellent an 

 address may be, the ordinary mind, untrained to think logically, can 

 only grasp a few facts, and sj)read out too long, they become tired, 

 and fail to get what they might, had it been condensed. It is sur- 

 prising how one can cut down and still retain the meat. 



