No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 397 



I have in mind a certain locality in my own county noted for its 

 beautiful homes and well stocked farms. There is no special market 

 to account for their success, but the owners put their profits back 

 into their homes and farms. The houses are heated with furnaces, 

 supplied with water, bath rooms and modern conveniences, and in 

 nearly every instance a son has staid on the farm. What did the 

 town offer that they did not have, and how much of independence, 

 health and contentment the farm offered the town could never give. 

 Then shall we advise our boys and girls to leave the farm? No, for 

 their chances of an upright useful life seems to me far greater there 

 than in the crowded towns, where success is often achieved by the 

 sacrifice of conscience. Now if we have made the farm so attrac- 

 tive to our children that we can have some one to help bear the 

 burdens as life reaches its meridian, then it seems to me we are 

 ready to enjoy the fruits of our labor and we will have no wish to 

 leave the farm, for the habits of an active energetic life are fixed 

 and to become an idler and oftentimes a bore to business men, 

 holds no temptation to us, and is usually disastrous to health. Where 

 there is no child on which to depend, the scarcity of help on the farm 

 and in the house make the management of the farm a serious mat- 

 ter. What is the solution of this problem? Can we draw help 

 from the shops? Shall we try the "heathen Chinee with his ways 

 that are dark and his tricks which are vain? Many claim that they 

 make the best of farm laborers. If so, speed the time when the im- 

 migration laws are so changed to give us this much needed help. 



Perhaps the lesson we must learn is less acres and more fertility. 

 Meet the dilemma of farm help in the field and in the home and I 

 say the time has not yet come to leave the farm. 



Now comes the sunset of life with its failing strength. To leave 

 the farm now means to leave the associations of a lifetime. Every 

 tree and rock has become old friends. Every tree reminds him of the 

 planting when his wife stood by his side, not a gray haired woman, 

 but a sweet girlish form. The home has grown and become beautiful 

 by their combined efforts; to leave it means to leave their personality 

 behind them. The crowds of the city are pandemonium. The ways 

 are strange and their days are saddened and shortened by the long- 

 ing for the old home with its fertile fields and running brooks. 

 Where the peepers were the orchestra that lulled them to sleep and 

 the birds gave the signal that the morn had come. Shall we leave 

 the farm in old age? No, I say again. Let us go back to our homes 

 and make them delightful as possible. Let us educate some of our 

 boys at least in our agricultural colleges. Let us teach our girls 

 that to be a true wife and intelligent mother is the crown of woman- 

 hood. Let us put so much of our enthusiasm and enterprise into 

 our business that we will never need to ask: When shall we leave 

 the farm? 



On motion duly seconded, the report was adopted. 



The CHAIRMAN: Questions are now in order; Dr. Funk's paper 

 was the first on the program. 



MR. HERR: Mr. Chairman, would it be in order to offer a resolu- 

 tion at this time? 



