326 STATE BUAKD OF AGRICULTURE 



manual art, and coniinuallv son^lit lo iiyilift the standard of the laborer, 

 IM'ofonnd statesman, he exercised that intuitive foresi«?ht ■\vliich ij^nores 

 present conditions, and foresees })i'ob]enis wliich tlie years still hide. 



Thus Avas established a system for the dissemination of agi'icultural 

 knowledge; a system whose benefits will never be known, and whose 

 inlluence will extend to all coming generations; a system which is ever 

 tending to create that better mode of husl)andry, where science is cor- 

 related with practice, the virtues of the one being combined to en- 

 hance the virtues of the other. It is a system which has affected 

 nearly every arable section in our country. It has mutualized the 

 varied commei'cial interests of the farmer. It li.'is transmuted the 

 abstruse sciences into concrete knowledge pertaining to every branch 

 and phase of husbandry. It has expelled the old and brouglit in the 

 new, in method and theory, and the old empiric laws have been laid 

 away on the shelves of time together with the crudities of ancient 

 handicraft, or the doctrines of old-time astrology. By its dilfusion of 

 knowledge, it has brought happiness and abundance into thousands of 

 homes, where dwell the brawn and sinew of our nation. And lastly, 

 this system has established ])ublic institutions throughout our land, 

 whose interests are the interests of ai)plied science; institutions which 

 number as we number our commonwealths, and whose power rests in 

 the united support of millions. All honor to him by whom these in- 

 stitutions were founded. All honor to the name of Morrill! All honor 

 to the agricultural colleges of America I All honor to the sincerity of 

 their purpose and the loftiness of their ideals! May they ever add 

 strength to strength as manual industry develops; and may their num- 

 bers increase as the nation extends her borders farther into distant 

 lands. 



The New England settler's home was a primitive one. It was a home 

 bare of ease or luxury; a home whose threshold the stranger seldom 

 crossed, in a region where the straitened ties of denser population 

 had never curtailed the freedom of the savage; a lonely home, encom- 

 passed by an almost unbroken wilderness. This has been the home of 

 many of America's patriots, this was the home of Justin Smith Morrill. 

 It was a Christian home, and the simple Christian faith taught there, 

 wrought the solid basis for the higher virtues of his later life. The 

 frugality practiced, the persistence and sturdiness acquired by that 

 frontier life, brought forth the fearless man of action, destined to long 

 service for his country. And it cannot be doubted, that all those quali- 

 ties of disposition and action which framed the career of Justin Morrill, 

 found their origin in the hardy, rigorous life he followed from youth 

 to manhood, and which were sustained by the spotless purity of his 

 character. 



Yet, there w'as nothing of grandeur or imposing greatness in the 

 character of Justin INIorrill; none of the enthralling magnetism of 

 Blaine, none of the wonderful brilliancy of Hamilton, His w^as the 

 type of modest worth, of (juiet, constant devotion to duty. His path 

 was the plain, straight path of public and private virtue. To popular 

 favor, he w^as oblivious. There Avas not an element in his nature which 

 betokened anything of self-aggrandizement or seduction to private in- 

 terest, which have so blighted the careers of some of our greatest 

 statesmen. 



