226 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



leading men in tlie calling, no one who expects to keep up with the times 

 will be without them. 



I have endeavored to point out some of the methods by which the 

 horticulturist can better fit himself for his life work, but while I believe 

 that w-e should get all the good possible from them, the advantages that 

 we can obtain will be in proportion to our own capacity. No training 

 that can be given will make up for a lack of common-sense, as this is 

 something that can not be acquired. If one has a -supply of sound, 

 horse-sense, with which to apply the principles upon which horticulture 

 is based, a sound technical education can not fail to be valuable; but. 

 with rooms to rent in the upper story, a man, even though ''college bred," 

 is like a ship without a rudder, and is likely to run upon the rocks. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. J. G. Hancock of Grand Haven: I would like to ask Prof. Taft a 

 question. He spoke of the special course, the six-weeks course. He said 

 the cost was not much. I would like you to give something of an idea 

 of the cost of that special six-weeks course, and when it commences for 

 the present winter; or if there il more than one course. 



Prof. Taft: I would say to Mr. Hancock and the others that the col- 

 lege has four courses. They all commence at the same time, on the 4th 

 day of January, and the only expense, aside from board, will be p. 50, 

 so far as the college is concerned. That is what we call the incidental 

 fee. There is an arrangement under way by which you can obtain board, 

 either near the college or in Lansing, at |3 per week (board and room, 

 light and fire), and for six weeks it would be |18. If you board in Lan- 

 sing, unless you wash to walk back and forth, about three miles each 

 w\ay, it will cost you ten cents per day for street-car fare, but after you 

 reach Lansing this will be the entire cost, except perhaps a small expense 

 for note paper and things of that kind; but no books nor anything of that 

 kind. 



Mr. Hale: I certainly am in great sympathy with the work of the 

 agricultural colleges, iu their effort to advance the interests of agricul- 

 ture. I always regretted that in my boyhood days I did not have the 

 opportunities of education, or of a scientific agricultural education. I 

 know that the scientists themselves have been a very great help to me, 

 with what little ability I had to grasp the knowledge they otTered. 

 Every line of our scientific work is of aid to the farmer and the fruit- 

 grower, and the man that calls to his aid the opportunities that are 

 given by our experiment stations and by our colleges, and utilizes their 

 work, I am sure, is the one who gets the most enjoymeut out of his labor 

 and the most final returns. But there is a thing that has puzzled me, 

 and it is puzzling me now and has for sOme time. I thought pei-haps 

 Prof. Taft let the whole thing out in his most admirable paper, when 

 he said, after telling what they were doing with llie boys and the o])por- 

 tunities that the boys had, that they could not help them if there were 

 "rooms to rent in the upT)er story"; and I have wondered, as a working 

 grower and one obliged to e)n])]oy a good many men, if it was a fact that 

 all the bovs who went to tlie agricnltni-al colleges were tlie ones that 



