No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 277 



figuring for better prices for our crops and stock. The greater 

 part or the migration to towns by the farmers has come from a 

 failure to see his own responsibility to the community. The farmer 

 is a real necessity and must be made to carry this responsibility. 

 A sick hen will have plenty of night visitors, every louse and mite 

 will call at night; poor soil invites all the vile weeds, so the sickly 

 church in the country luis invited all the disorders that are at- 

 tendant upon disease. 



The country church must teach that ''get-rich-quick" schemes are 

 from low desire. Godliness with contentment is great gain. That 

 would half solve the boy problem. A boot-black, shining a cripple's 

 shoes refused additional charges for double work required, saying: 

 "I don't want to make money off other peoples misfortunes." He 

 had the right spirit. 



There is no place where the spiritual life is susceptible of as 

 high attainment as in the country. Every truth has a double mean- 

 ing here. The farmer will always listen to a man with a message 

 to him. But it must be to him. Dr. Philips, first talked about 

 horses, then cows, then school, each time showing ignorance. One 

 day he spoke of siloes and he was invited into an intimate relation 

 to 'that home. 



My own observation is that the farmer's son is worth two city 

 chaps under same conditions. This ought to appeal to the ministry. 

 We hear once in a wdiile that farmers won't get together or get 

 together so far apart. That comes from trying to hold together 

 from the outside. The church is the only institution that can work 

 on the inside, therefore it has a great responsibility. The Lord's 

 Prayer is the expression of a Divine co-operative commonwealth upon 

 its knees. It asks for everything else before it asks for bread. 

 Until the country church can pray this prayer truly, its powder will 

 be only over a few people but when it sees the whole community 

 before it seeks selfish satisfactions, it will save the community. 



I have met with churches that w^ere too holy to hold institutes in; 

 maybe they were good, but good-for-nothing. The church has been 

 so intently interested in staying beside the cemetery that they are 

 competitors for greatest degree of lifelessness. I saw a sign the 

 other day. '^If it is not electric it is not modern;" so a church today 

 must electrify the life of the farmer. It is a crime to waste the 

 Lord's money in trying to do his w^ork in the country without trained 

 men whose work does not overlap. 



We must develop a family religion. What made the lack of rev- 

 erence in the country when the family altar fell down, irreverence 

 like all weed seed, grew in its place. Anything forced upon the 

 farmer from the outside does him little good; for instance some 

 good salesman sells him a piano with no one to play it. He teaches 

 a child music, then he has a real use for it. 



The best book on agriculture is the Bible. The biggest job to-day 

 is the country minister. The country church is not a failure because 

 it has not been tried. We need to hitch our work to a star of hope. 

 We sing, "We walk with the King;" we need to work with the King 

 as farmers. Some inspiration in that. The successful farmer must 

 be his own greatest competitor. Nothing to beat another, but great 

 honor to beat his best effort. Dan Patch, when he clipped another 

 second off his own record, counted. 



