41 



ditions which we found necessary in our own province. Not only have we 

 greatly increased the annual output of tlie farmers of the country, but as a 

 consequence we have materially increased their capital. If the capital of the 

 country is more productive, of course it will increase in value, and the conse- 

 quence has been that during the last six or seven years farm values of the 

 Province of Ontario have been rising steadily, an increase in value amounting 

 to .*i;iST,<MM».(i(Mi. So when I say that agriculture is paramount with us, that it 

 far outshines all manufacturing industry, you will see I am making statements 

 that are well within the mark, and in them you will see the secret of the suc- 

 cess we may have had along other lines. 



As I walked around the grounds and tried to take in the immensity of the 

 exhibition here gathered together from America and all parts of the civilized 

 world, as I went through the Transportation Building and the Manufactures 

 Building, and so on, I could not help but think that after all enough of the suc- 

 cess of this great fair and the exhibition that has been made here has not been 

 attributed to the agriculture of this country. Had it not been for the rich fields 

 of the West, and the center, and the South there would have been no great 

 demand for these magnificent transportation departments. Had it not been 

 for the rich products of those millions and millions of fertile acres the great 

 Mauufactin-es Building and the Varied Indu.stries and Lilicral Arts build- 

 ings, and so on, would have found no place here. It seemed to me that in 

 the planning of these buildings, in the first place, those who did the work 

 hardly gave that prominent place to the great Agricultural Building that it 

 rightly and properly deserved. Perhaps that comment may not be fully appre- 

 ciated by all ; but it seems to me that the place of honor in an exhibition of 

 this kind properly belongs to that which is the foundation of all else. 



What about the great work with which we are concerned, that more particu- 

 larly known as the farmers' institute work of this country? As I have said to 

 you, we have found it the key to success with us in our agricultural work. We 

 claim to have n.adc no little success in our agricultural department, and we have 

 used the farmers" institute work from the very start. It was the means whereby 

 we got hold of the farmers and got their -confidence. And I would simply say to 

 you, if any of you are meeting with any discouragements, feeling that you are not 

 making that progress in your farmers' institute work that you should make, that 

 it takes a long time to get a grip on the farmers of any community ; but that after 

 all the farmers' institute is the best way I know of of getting that grip which is 

 so important and so necessary. 



The next movement thtit we are about to undertake in connection with the 

 agricultural work of our country to the north is that of agricultural education. 

 We have been fairly successful with our farmers' institute work, and through it 

 we have brought a large measure of success to our agricultural college ; but it 

 has always seemed to me that outside of these new forces, outside of the farmers' 

 institute work, and outside of the agricultural college there is an enormous field 

 yet, to be developed, a field that has hardly yet been touched upon and that after 

 all is the most important of the three. 



We ha^'e within the last three months' made a very important change in the 

 educational possibilities of our Province. It has taken a long time, much 

 talking, much and long discussion, and we have had a great deal of discourage- 

 ment before we succeeded in coming to the point we have at last reached. 

 We have at last gotten agriculture recognized upon the curriculum of our 

 public school system on the same basis as other subjects that have been 

 placed there. We have had the opportunity before of having agriculture 

 taught to a limited extent in some of the senior forms of the public school, 

 but never until this year have we been able to provide that agriculture may 



