456 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



culture, left agriculture? What has been the status of the farm? 

 One often hears it said that the farm is a good place to be born, and 

 to grow up ou if jou get away soon enough. Today, the business 

 maa who has had all the success the business world can give, ii 

 beginning to say that the farm is a good place to return to, and th» 

 sooner he can get back to the farm, the better. One of the success- 

 ful men — a member of our Agricultural Guild — said to me (I had 

 been spending the day with him most pleasantly at his beautiful 

 farm, among his fine Guernsey cattle) — ''1 count every day lost that 

 I must go into the city." The conditions under which a man can 

 live, under which his children can grow up, the contact with Nature 

 and the absence of all the artificial, that goes best with city life, 

 makes it natural that any sane man, who has seen all the attractions 

 that city life can give, should long to return to the simpler and more 

 wholesome conditions of the country. This tendency to return to 

 the country is very strong today. It is necessary to understand 

 these forces to see how the Guild developed. 



A number of these men who have gone from the farm, and have 

 made a success in the city, have now decided that they will make 

 their homes in the country, and there spend their declining days 

 where their children can grow up on the farms about Chicago. Many 

 of them expected to apply the business methods which brought them 

 success in building railroads,, or banking, or commercial life, to these 

 farms. What difiticulties did they encounter, these men who have 

 moved from the city to the country? First, the serious dearth of 

 good dairymen, men capable of taking charge of their herds of fine 

 cattle, and of men capable of carrying out the orders such men give. 

 If a man of this kind wanted to build a railroad, he could hire men 

 to carry out his orders, and construct according to his plans. Where 

 can you find such a man in agriculture? What proportion of educa- 

 tion is necessary to equip a man so that he will be competent to per- 

 form these duties? Do our Agricultural Colleges educate a man for 

 this? Many of these men have had agricultural college graduates 

 on their farms to take charge of some of the departments on these 

 farms. With what results? In most cases, with disastrous results 

 — in some cases, extremely disastrous. One of these men a year 

 before the Guild was organized went to the leading Agricultural 

 Colleges of the W^est for a man to take charge of his high class dairy 

 and farm. A graduate was recommended to him who was said to 

 be the best iu his class, and, in addition to that, had had a consider- 

 able amount of practical training. This man was employed at a 

 good salary, and given charge of the farm. A practical man, with 

 little college training had given up the position because of the ill- 

 ness of his father. When he left, the herd of one hundred cows was 

 producing on an average, about eighten pounds of milk pier day. 

 Records were kept, and the herd was in good condition. This col- 

 lege graduate had charge of the herd a little less than three months. 

 At the end of that period, the average production was eleven poundi 

 per day. When he left, the records were in such a shape that 

 nothing could be told about the condition of the farm. and. worse 

 even than that, from a moral standpoint, bills amounting to eigh- 

 teen hundred dollars, which had been supposed to have been paid 

 from month to month, had been covered up to make a showing. A 

 carload of cattle, which this man had been sent to a neighboring 



