No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 229 



land in northern Illinois will jneld, as fur as agriculture goes. So 

 we need men to develop these {jossihilitics to a greater extent than 

 they have been developed in the last few years. 



We welcome you because you have brought better agriculture and 

 better home conditions, the things that really amount to so much. 

 You are in a land to-day where a large percentage of the farmers own 

 their homes and have Ihem paid for. You do not find the fat of 

 the land oozing out as readily as in Lancaster county, but they get 

 the results nevertheless. Y''ou can go into many many homes in 

 western Crawford county to-day, though they are not i)retenti()us, 

 tliough they are not mansions or palaces, and you will find all the 

 modern conveniences in the way of modern heating appliances, good 

 lighting systems, bath room equipments and all those things. Wo 

 do not need to be told that there are a whole lot of us who need 

 these things, we realize that and we know the blessings that go 

 with them. What we need is some help to tell us how to acquire 

 some of these things; that is the problem we are up against to-day. 

 It is illustrated by the fact that when milk in this county brought 

 a little less than three cents a quart, good Jersey milk, that not 

 far away is bringing eight and ten cents from the consumer? — we 

 need some of that profit and we will have more wdien we get our 

 share. One of the great things w^e are up against in western Craw- 

 ford county, is the question of who is going to help the farmer win 

 Ills battle. That is the question that is coming up for solution. We 

 believe to-day that the organization that you represent is going to 

 have a part in that direction, must have a part in that direction. 

 We welcome you here then because we believe you are able to 

 help us in that direction and we look to you for some help along 

 these lines. 



Then, further, I want to say, personally, that I welcome yon here 

 because of what you have been to me as brothers and sisters in this 

 work. I do no"t have to go back very many years in my life till 

 I recall the time when I started out to try to do a little Farmers' 

 Institute lecture work and my first attempt fell rather flat and I 

 realized that I was a failure along that line and wanted to give 

 it up and friends like Brother Lighty and Brother f^eeds took me 

 and stood my feet on a rock along these lines and I shall always 

 feel under an_everlasting debt of gratitude for their help and strength 

 in that direction and the help that comes from all of you in this 

 great association work. And again I should have been very much 

 pleased if it had been possible, by some arrangement, that 1 could 

 have had you all over to Woodbine Farm for a short time at least, 

 but it did not seem possible to make an arrangement of this kind, 

 but I hope that many of you as possibly can will find it convenient 

 to make a short visit at least before your return to your homes and 

 we shall be glad to see any and all of you who can come. We are 

 not doing great things over there, not running a show place or 

 anything of that kind, but we have accomplished some results by 

 (laticnt effort and hard work along the lines we have been working 

 in the past few years and we feel .that our work is only well 

 begun. 



It is sometimes said that a Farmers' Institute lecturer ought to 

 be a good farmer, and so he should: but a man ought also to be 

 a good farmer because he is a lecturer. It is a rule that workv«5 



