278 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



A few topics that 1 think would be of value, and interest to the 

 farmers of our locality are, as I said at the outset, those specially 

 related to dairying; and another one is, better roads. And I would 

 like it, if in this meeting we had time to have Prof. Hamilton, or 

 some one else, explain that we might take it home for consideration. 



MR. HECE, Franklin County: Mr. Chairman, I gave my time to 

 Mr. Northup. When Mr. Northup took his seat, I felt like a colored 

 brother we had at Chambersbuig. llv was not a very good brother, 

 for sometimes he didn't tell the truth. He always had some colored 

 man in the audience to say "amen'' to what he said. One day he had 

 a fellow picked out to say amen to what he said, but he didn't do it, 

 and when the meeting was dismissed, he took him to task for it, 

 and said, "Now Brother, you didn't say amen as you agreed to." 

 "No," he said, "you lied, and I don't say amen when you lie," but 

 Mr. Northup told us the truth, and I could heartily say amen to it. 



I am sorry I don't remember the speaker's name who told us that 

 up in his county there was only one place that he could hold an in- 

 stitute. (Mr. John M. Witman, of Elk county.) That it was a min- 

 ing county and the people would not come out to be benefited. I 

 think everybody ought to be benefited in a farmers' institute. I try 

 to get the little boys and girls interested. You can educate them. 

 A few years ago at Fayetteville, we were crowded for space in the 

 afternoon, and a committee came to me and said, "This evening we 

 are not going to admit the little boys and girls." I said, "How are 

 you going to get over that?" "Why," they said, "we are going to 

 have a man at the door and as the people enter we are not going to 

 allow them to take the little boys and girls in." I replied, "That if I 

 was going to an institute and had my little boy or girl with me, 

 and I was refused admittance for the children, I would never come 

 to your institute again." I said, "We will provide benches and 

 chairs and seat the little boys and girls up there." We had forty or 

 fifty or maybe sixty little boys and girls, and it was satisfactory to 

 everybody. We want to be careful so that we don't offend anybody. 



I know that before I was a member of the Board in our county, 

 the institutes were always held in one place. The chairman would 

 hold them for two or three days in his own town, and by the way, 

 the people didn't take very much interest, only a few of his friends 

 around town took an interest. He didn't introduce the strangers 

 that came, that were anxious to know what a farmers' institute was; 

 he didn't introduce them to the lecturers, but in a year or two he 

 announced himself as a candidate for the Legislature. He was a 

 Republican, but the Republicans didn't nominate him, and the next 

 time he came out on the Prohibition ticket. He thought the Demo- 

 crats would unite with the Prohibitionists but he was defeated, and 

 then the next time he would have come out on the Demooratio tioket 



