No. 5. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 155 



girls, not only a religion that ministers to tbose who have fallen by 

 the way on tlie road to Jericho, but we want to teach them how to 

 make the road to Jericho safe, and to take and keep the danger out 

 of the way of those who might otherwise be tempted to stray out 

 of the paths of rectitude and duty. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, I don't know that I have anything further 

 to say, and T am ready to turn this over to the small man from 

 Tioga. 



RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME 



By E. B. DORSETT, Farm Adviser, Mansfield, Pa. 



Mr. Chairman, your Honors, Members of the Institute, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen: T deem it both an honor and a privilege to respond to 

 the cordial words of greeting from the Judge of your Court and 

 His Honor, the Mayor. We are here not merely as representatives 

 of the greatest calling known to man, but as men and women actually 

 engaged in the tilling of the soil. In coming here we do not bring 

 with us any such exalted opinion of ourselves or claim to possess 

 that degree of knowledge as was claimed by our friend Pat, who 

 had been brought into Court, to be tried by a jury of his peers for 

 some breach of the law. The jury had been called and the trial 

 was about to begin, when the Judge turned to Pat and said: *Tat, 

 do you know any of the jurors?" Pat replied, "Yes, Sor, I do, your 

 Honor." "Do you know as much as half of them?" asked the Judge. 

 "Yes, Sor," replied Pat, "I know more than the whole bunch of thim." 

 We are here with the full consciousness of the fact, that while 

 Agriculture is as yet but little understood by the masses, yet we 

 have in a greater or lesser degree, been responsible for the progress 

 that has been made during the last decade. 



These men and women are here to discuss problems pertaining to 

 the farm, the school, the State and the Nation. We represent the 

 oldest occupation known to man. "Since God placed man on the 

 earth. Agriculture has existed. There is no occupation precedes it, 

 no other or association that can rank with the tillers of the soil. 

 Before literature existed, before governments were known. Agricul- 

 ture was the calling of man and all the fruits of social progress since 

 then grew from the brown soil. Agricultural toilers, therefore, claim 

 this precedence over royal dynasties and titles of nobility, that they 

 represent the oldest and most indisputable lineage, and hold a patent 

 that issues from the ancient gates of Eden." 



Of the three men first mentioned in tlie Bible, one was a Grazier, 

 one a Gardener and the other a Plowman. In after years these dif- 

 ferent occupations were united and today are known under the one 

 name as Agriculture. In eaily times there was much drudgery con- 

 nected with farm life, and the lot of the farmer was neither easy nor 

 congenial. Most of the work was done by hand and the few imple- 



