338 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR JOHN HAMILTON. 



It is uot necessary for me to say, gentlemen, that it is always a 

 pleasure to me to come to Harris^jui'g iind meet the men who have 

 done so much for me personally. 1 always look back upon the mem- 

 bers of the old State Board as my staunch friends. They have been 

 true, not only to me, but what is of far greater consequence, they 

 have been true to their trust as representatives of the Agriculture 

 of Pennsylvania. 



A number of years ago it was said that there was notliing more 

 for you to do for agriculture in Pennsylvania. The progress you 

 have made since then completely refutes that. There never was 

 more for this State Board to do than there is today, and if your abil- 

 ity to do were five times greater than it is, there would still be suffi- 

 cient to occupy all of your powers. The work that you have done 

 heretofore has gone on so quietly that many people have not ap- 

 preciated it. You have been laying the foundations on which the 

 great work in agricultural improvement now going on is based. 

 You, as a board of agriculture, have laid a good foundation, and now 

 that the time has come to put on the brick and mortar and erect 

 the building, the quality of your work begins to appear. It has been 

 of the most valuable and solid kind. 



Let us stop a moment and look at some of the things that lie be- 

 fore you. Most of us older men like to live in reminiscence; to think 

 of the things that we have done; to feel how much the world is in- 

 debted to us. I believe that our motto should be that of the great 

 Apostle: ''forgetting the things that are behind, I press forward." 

 That should be the watchword of this Board — ^"we press on." Al- 

 though some of you are getting along in years, you are nevertheless 

 still of one heart and one mind to press forward. 



The great work that lies before you is this: To show the men and 

 women in all of our communities how to make a living on the land. 

 That is what we are trying to do. The work of education in the 

 country, and all of the machinery in operation for rural betterment 

 has for its chief aim, — to teach the men and women of 

 the country how to make a better living; how to make 

 more money out of the land; to have better homes; how to 

 get ahead in life. To teach a man who is ambitious to own a farm, 

 but with very little money, how to cultivate a piece of land so that 

 in twenty years he shall own it, have it paid for, together with its 

 stock and equipment, with sufficient surplus to enable him to give 

 his children an education, and assist them to make a start in life; 

 to take a young man, who has as his capital only good health and 

 a fair amount of energy, and teach him how to succeed, is doing 

 valuable service to the State. The time will come very soon, it is 

 coming now, when a large number of the people in our cities are 

 going to get out into the country districts, and tlien the problem 

 will be how these people are to get started so as to make a success 

 of agriculture, and secure a living. 



The next problem is to so start our children, who are to succeed 

 us, that they may begin where we leave off, and to successfully pur- 

 sue farming as a profession. The solution of this problem is not 

 easy. Fortunately a great many of our most competent men are 



