286 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



MK. HOOVEK: Mr. Chairman. I have been listening to this dis- 

 cussion with a great deal of interest. I belong to that class of 

 workers called Farmers' Institute Managers and also take a part in 

 trying to instruct farmers as to a better and higher mode of farm- 

 ing. 



While I agree with all that you have said, there are still a few 

 things that I think are worthy of our consideration, and one is that 

 I think our institute managers should be men who are successful in 

 their vocation themselves. If you want those to whom you preach 

 your doctrine to have faith in what you say and what you preach, 

 you ought to be able to show it in your own work. A man who 

 caonot point back to his farm with some pride, or at least with 

 some idea that he has set his standard high, or anyway a little above 

 the ordinary, is hardly the man to be an institute manager, be- 

 cause it is a rule that the doing of a thing always has more force 

 in it than the mere preaching of it. You must show what you can 

 do. You must not only preach, but you must practice. If a man's 

 work does not bear him out, he is a poor leader. That is one of the 

 important features, as I think, to be considered by institute man- 

 agers and workers. He must teach not only in the lecture field, but 

 on the very farms as well, in order that persons who are prejudiced, 

 who are indifferent, will see a forcible presentation of the argument 

 made, much more so than he can bring before them in words, for if 

 they see it exemplified right on his farm, it will be an object lesson 

 far beyond any mere words. 



I have known a number of cases of men who were leading men 

 who stood by me in my work in my own particular county, where 

 there is still a good deal of prejudice and iodift'erence, they have 

 stood by me showing results on their farms and in that way they 

 drew in some of those indifferent persons who had failed to attend 

 their institutes and who had looked upon our work as a species of 

 humbug. By these practical means, those prejudices have been re- 

 moved, and progress has been made, and more successful methods 

 of farming have been taught, and you know we want to have better 

 farming and higher farming; that is the main purpose of our organi- 

 zation. These are the things that occurred to me as things that 

 are well for us all to take home and consider. 



MR. SEEDS: Mr. Chairman, one of the gentlemen who has ad- 

 dressed you, has spoken about the great trouble the county chair- 

 man has to get a suitable room and accommodations for the speakers. 

 I will acknowledge that it is all right during the day when his in- 

 stitutes are going all right, and he has got a good crowd that stands 

 by him and he feels good until he goes to the quarters for the night 

 and gets into that cold, dismal bar-room, perhaps heated with an 

 oil stove that warns us of future punishment. That is what breaks 

 an institute worker's heart and makes him homesick and he wishes 

 he was home. 



I have not got much complaint to make as I have nearly always 

 got the best in the land and in the community, yet if you have got 

 a cold room, I would say this, at least get the people to air it. The 

 coldest room in the world is a room that has been closed up. Let 

 the air in and go in about three hours before bedtime, and try to 

 he^t that room up. I have got into bed clothes that were fairly 



