LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 355 



think a life of toil, we may tell them that tio great position is won except by 

 hard work, and weary, toilsome labor, not exceeded by any on the farm ; that 

 for one who gains a name and fame, thousands reach not above mediocrity, 

 and that every good thing honestly secured comes through labor intelligently 

 directed ; teach them that the path in the cities is beset with temptations, and 

 that there is no place like the farm in which to lead pure and happy lives. 

 The boys and girls are the best crop on the farm, and by them must some part 

 of success be judged. Agricultural progress will demand that the farmer of 

 the future shall be educated. We are nearing the time of that style of farming 

 called intensive in contradistinction to tluit which is extensive or extended. 

 We must go deeper instead of wider, producing the greatest crop on the 

 fewest acres. We are nearing the time when our agriculture must be conducted 

 on scientific principles. The farmer must be a student of the soil, he must 

 know its wants and capabilities, and must have good judgment as well as study. 

 The scientist may seek original investigation, but the farmer must be suffi- 

 ciently educated to practically apply the knowledge gained. One stock of 

 fertilizer which must increase is brains. 



The Agricultural College must be an important factor in the progress of the 

 future. Of recent growth, such colleges are an acknowledged and increasing 

 power in enlarging the sphere and extending the resources of the farmer. Thev 

 tend to ennoble agriculture because they ennoble the agriculturist. I am happy 

 that Michigan has one of the best, and I trust it will not lack appreciation 

 and support. The demand for experimental stations is another sign of agricult- 

 ural progress. The demand for investigation by scientific methods is increas- 

 ing. Intelligent farming resents the method of accepting theories only, but 

 demands the reason for the cause that produces an effect. The future farmer 

 will be full of information. If he does not acquaint himself with what is new 

 in his business, he may as well give up ; he may be sure that those who do 

 keep up will excel him. The day has gone by when the ignorant can be a 

 successful farmer. Within a few years past agriculture has undergone great 

 changes, and the leading agriculturists are fast becoming the leading men of 

 the country. It may be admitted that there was more of solid comfort in the 

 good old days, than there is to-day throughout the farming community; and 

 there ought to be. Farmers dress better, live in better homes than their 

 fathers did. Their wants are of a higher class, proving that they are rising 

 above the social plane on which their ancestors were contented to remain, 

 instead of sinking to the peasant level. They set oat upon the race of life 

 at a swifter gait, and in order to hold the pace they must use brain as well as 

 muscle, and brain work is wearing work. The former days were full of solid 

 comfort, but the farmer of the future who is content with a drowsy existence 

 will inevitably be left, for his children will demand and receive what other 

 children have, and if the farm is managed on the slovenly method, or allowed 

 to run itself, it will not supply the necessaries of life. In every community 

 there can be found farmers who do more than subsist on the products of their 

 acres. They prosper in business because they conduct their farms on business 

 principles. With the necessity of getting a more productive increase from the 

 soil comes the necessity of more study and more knowledge. The time has 

 come when the close calculating of the manufacturer must be applied to 

 agricultural practice. It has recently been truly said, that ''the farm must 

 be treated as a factory, not as a mine." 



In the factory, profits are made by saving the small percentages of waste, 

 by adopting labor-saving contrivances, by watching the markets, by making as 



