No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 247 



sonal work. It is a work that has many features — some of them 

 serious, some of them amusing, some discouraging, some encourag- 

 ing. For instance, the other day I had a letter from a man to whom 

 I had given good advice in reference to putting out an alfalfa field; 

 he said he was sorry to say he had not met with much success; he 

 had followed the advice of his neighbor instead of mine. It is one 

 of the things we are up against. Those who are engaged in this 

 work of improving agriculture, should use every effort to interest 

 the public in the success of the farmer. We should enlist every edu- 

 cational influence — State College, the County Institute, and every 

 educational agency that can be secured. 



I divide farmers into three classes; first, the prosperous farmers 

 wlio are doing well. They are on the alert, and make use of every 

 means to advance themselves. They take in every farmers' session 

 at State College; subscribe for the farm papers, their names are on 

 the bulletin list, and they read them when they come. They are do- 

 ing well. They are getting information and using it, and I must 

 admit that it is from men of this class that most of our calls have 

 come. It is not letting any cat out of the bag to say this, but it is 

 something to think aboilt. 



The second class is composed of the farmers who are holding their 

 own, but are not making much headway. They don't acquire their 

 knowledge at first hand; they are slow to take advantage of what is 

 offered them, but after a little while they begin to look over the 

 fence to see what their more progressive neighbor is doing, and 

 then go and do likewise. They just about manage to hold their own; 

 their sons and daughters leave home. The sons and daughters of 

 the first class do not leave home; they stay at home and become 

 farmers. This second class never read the farm papers, except possi- 

 bly the story on the back page ; they never have time to read the bul- 

 letins, and they make no headway. 



Then there is a third class that is simply holding on. They are 

 the ones who claim that farming does not pay, and they don't want 

 their sons and daughters to become farmers. They are the grumb- 

 lers, the people who have no time or inclination to take up with the 

 means of an improved agriculture. I will not say how large a pro- 

 portion of farmers consists of this class, nor how long it will sur- 

 vive. In agriculture, as in everything else, it is a case of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest. 



Now, I am not a pessimist, and my experience for eight or nine 

 years in agricultural work, is that the first class is constantly in- 

 creasing every year, and that is what is forcing Pennsylvania ahead 

 as an agricultural state. The second class advances into the first 

 class, and the third class will either be moved up into the second 

 class, or be forced out of business altogether. 



How shall we increase the vigor of the second class, which is now 

 passive? How shall we reach the third class, or is it worth while to 

 try to reach them? 



7. MR. KLINP]: In my work as a poultryman I have been very 

 well received by the farmers throughout the State, and I don't think 

 there is a farmer in the State whom I visited that I can't go back 

 to. I find we can reach a man far better in this way than we can 



