INSTITUTE TALKS. 497 



a scientific problem. I believe that we need an education, but there is little 

 energy available for that in the midst of the labors of the farmer, and I 

 would urge that our boys should utilize their time in that direction, and for 

 this reason I rejoice in our Agricultural College. 



Mr. Wetmore: Wendell Phillips says a graduate of our schools has noth- 

 ing that the community will give him a cent for. He has only learned to 

 handle the tools. His real education is the practical, everyday experience of 

 his life. 



Prof. Bailey: Book farming, or a system of instruction that can be 

 directly applied to practice, is now better thought of than formerly. I 

 remember a young man who, with no practice whatever, undertook small 

 fruits with the help of a book on the subject, and succeeded admirably. 

 Another undertook and succeeded in onion culture in the same way. How 

 often people try to follow books blindly, without common sense, and with 

 such a lack one cannot succeed, even in book farming. 



President Willits : One word as to a feature I have heard nothing about. 

 A study of the markets and keeping posted on these. You go to a merchant 

 and say: "What do you ask for a yard of cloth?" and you go to the same 

 man and say: *'Wiiat will you give for a bushel of oats?" The farmer 

 fixes the rate neither of what he buys or sells. Why? Because he knows 

 nothing outside of his fence lines. He is not posted as to the condition of 

 the markets. The merchant says: "I cannot sell that yard of cloth short 

 of six cents;" but they don't ask the farmer whether he can sell at any 

 price. 



Mr. Willis, of Pulaski : Now, as to whether a farmer can fix his price, I 

 raise a question. The farmer can say to the merchant, " I won't take the 

 yard of cloth at six cents," or "You can't have my wheat at ninety-four 

 cents; I won't sell short of a dollar " The farmer is as independent in the 

 matter as any one else. 



INSTITUTE TALKS. 



BY PRESIDENT EDWIN WILLITS. 

 [Being notes taken from remarks at the different institutes.] 



A fair in the eastern part of Europe is a great market ; a place where 

 people gather from distant quarters for the mutual interchange of their pro- 

 ducts; and with these products they also interchange ideas, and thus these 

 fairs become great educators and civilizers. 



These institutes fulfill one function of those eastern fairs. They serve as a 

 place for the interchange of ideas, where we who are directed by the State to 

 study problems of agricultural science may find out what those problems are 

 and what are their conditions ; where we may learn from your experience 

 and you may learn from our study. 



Our own fairs serve another of the uses of the market fairs in bringing 

 together the productions of different men and different places that they 

 may be compared ; that we may see the excellencies of each, the shortcom- 

 ings of each, and from this comparison arises one of the uses of our agricult- 

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