458 ANNUAL REPORT OF THK OfE. Doc. 



whose farms were near together, about Chicago, undertook each a 

 specialty in some particular line. The University was to get them 

 expert advice from the Agricultural Colleges and successful farmers, 

 as to what lines should be undertaken on each farm, due to the rela- 

 tive condition of the farm. A superintendent was put in charge of 

 each farm; the requirements were, his practical ability to make that 

 farm a prosperous farm. I put that first, because I have observed 

 the methods of educational men in their business training. Second, 

 a theoretical, scientific and technical training, which would enable 

 hSm to plan the work on that farm and conduct it in such a way 

 that every man was working under him would have the advan- 

 tages he could get from doing the work in the right way. We learn 

 how to do by doing. Third, business sense and judgment. That, 

 perhaps, would be a subhead under the first practical requirement, 

 which was making a prosperous farm. You will find men who can 

 grow good crops, but do not know how to market them. Then, 

 another important requirement is enthusiasm, and love of the work 

 they are doing, and effort to inspire the men who are working under 

 them with this love of the work, so that the whole organization 

 would move them to good spirit and eagerness to accomplish the 

 best results. 



You will readily recognize that such a combination is rare, and 

 that you cannot find every day men who combine these qualities, and 

 I frankly and sorrowfully confess that we have not as yet found a 

 man who can anything like come uj) to these requirements — but that 

 is what we are trying to do and to train men for. 



Numerous applications came in. We selected a number of men 

 and started them to work on the different farms we had in the mean- 

 time secured. Some of these men had the idea that a good many 

 college graduates, and perhaps a good many more graduates of non- 

 agricultural colleges have than of Agricultural Colleges — that their 

 education fitted them to tell other people what to do, instead ot 

 doing it themselves, but, upon their application, I impressed upon 

 them by numerous letters this first condition, this first requirement: 

 "You will begin at the bottom, and do the hardest and most disagree- 

 able work of the farm, for two reasons; first, to see that you really 

 can do it, and second, to see as to your staying qualities — to see 

 if you really want to do farming, and the hard disagreeable duties 

 of farm life. If you can't we can't afford to put up with you; we 

 are selecting the men who have practically decided that the practical 

 in agriculture is more to their liking than teaching in an Agricul- 

 tural College, or professional or commercial pursuits open to them." 

 I really think that any man who has carefully considered the oppor- 

 tunities, and then decides that he wants to make this his life work — 

 if he wants to make farming his life work, gets more opportunities 

 for development, good health and pleasure than he could win in any 

 other walk of life, or in any one of the many openings that are 

 offered everywhere in America. I don't mean that he will become 

 actually wealthy, but he will be sure of a good living, and, to a great 

 extent,'of a good home, and a good, wholesome, healthy life, "^^at 

 are your children going to be if they grow up in the slums of the 

 dity? If you are really in earnest and want to enter our work, I 

 will give you two years to prove it in." 



