The Bulletin. 125 



sideration we can. It is hard to make up a program that will fit all 

 sections. We have such a big State, and there are so many kinds of 

 farms and so many interests; but we have tried to get things common 

 to all sections and to all interests. If you will offer your suggestions 

 they will be thoroughly considered by the committee making up the 

 program for the next meeting. We want you to feel free about making 

 suggestions. If we do not carry them out, it is because we cannot. We 

 want every community and every section to be represented. 



It is a great pleasure to have you with us. We of course cannot 

 make you so comfortable as you could be at a hotel, but we are glad 

 to welcome you here. I want to apologize for any deficiencies that 

 have occurred. We want to see double this number next year. We are 

 glad to see so many young men here. They are the hope of the country. 

 We are glad to see the old men, who have been here year after year. 

 We are glad to welcome all who can come. 



We will certainly give you the -best program that we can, and we 

 will give you a most cordial welcome. We want you to feel that we 

 are doing all we can to advance the agricultural interests of the State. 

 The convention is organized to increase the power and the efficiency 

 and the knowledge of the farmer, and if we can in any way contribute 

 to that end we want to do it. 



Dr. Alexander: I want to call attention to one or two lessons that 

 have been impressed upon my mind by the discourses we have heard. 

 I am sure we have all enjoyed them and have been very much instructed. 



I was struck with the history given of the little country of Den- 

 mark. I want to contrast it with the history of our own country. 

 We were told that about forty years ago the farmers of that little 

 countiy, consisting of poor land, without any natural resources or 

 mines or forests or seaports or navigable streams — the farmers of that 

 country were peasant farmers, almost serfs. To-day we find that the 

 people of that little country are the second richest people in the world. 

 What is the cause of it? They have made that wealth from the pur- 

 suit of agriculture in a soil not to compare with ours. I want to ask 

 if this is not due to the kind of education they have there. It seems 

 to me, if I am not mistaken, that instead of having one Agricultural 

 and Mechanical College and one State Normal College, the little coun- 

 try of Denmark has about twenty-five or thirty universities and several 

 thousand high schools giving vocational training. There you have the 

 secret. They have a system of education adapted to the needs of the 

 people. They have taught the people in hand as well as in head. They 

 have given a practical, efficient education, making their people a pro- 

 ductive people. They have also taught cooperation, and this is the 

 day of cooperation. Competition is dead. It used to be said that com- 

 petition is the life of trade, but that is not true. Competition is de- 

 structive, and we have to replace destructive competition by constructive 

 cooperation. This is a day of cooperation, and we must teach coopera- 



