48 



I ..„.,..,„.,...,„„„.,.„.„.. .„,. 



^B best we can in our various coniniuiiities tlirough our fanners" institutes, and 

 ^M you will find, as we have in our own rrovinco. that it is a difficult matter to 

 ^H get the fanners of a community so aroused to the importaTice of u question 

 i^' that they will take hold of it as a live issue. I'ut a question of that kind 

 before the men of the cities — the financiers, the hankers — and they will n,i,a-ee 

 with you at once; they will s.-iy, " Of course, that is it : that is what you ought 

 to do; that is what is right and i)roi)er," because these men recognize better 

 than ;i!iyb(Mly else that it is from the farms that their wealth ultimately comes, 

 and that with an onlightened farming condition they will succeed better than 

 if the cduntry is given over to men uneducated and undevelojied. But when 

 you come to carry out a cimpaign of th.at kind in connection with the farmers 

 themselves you will be met at first with indifference, if not with opiiosition. 

 We found it so with us. lUit you nuist keep at it and at it and at it. The 

 agricultural coiiniuuiity of your State, as of our I'rovince, is slow to be moved. 

 It takes a longi'r time to consider (juestions of this kind, but once you get 

 the agriculturists of a community nioved nothing will stop them, and if we 

 can only get this one iiuestion ground into their very being — that an agricul- 

 tural education must begin with the boys and girls at the earliest age — as 

 soon as we can g«'t that knea<led into their fiber and their very being then 

 it will not take very long to work out success even in the most irresponsive 

 P State in the whole of North America. 



I stated a moment ago tliat in connection with this agricultural movement 

 we nuist expect results to come slowly. We must not try to jiusli matters too 

 rai»idly, and we must not look for results in too short a time. Frequently we 

 meet workers, experienced and others, who are apt to become discouraged in 

 their work. If there are any people in this country who are in need of inspira- 

 ti<m t() work or need to have it with them all the time it is the men who are 

 concerned wirh the farmers' institute work of this country, the men who are 

 trying to ui»rift and upbuild the agricultural interests. There is laid upon 

 them a responsibility that is unequaled along any other line that I know of. 

 I sonh'Times feel so ovei'wbelmed by the resiionsibility of this work that I 

 hardly know what to say about it or how to jtroiierly present it. There is, 

 to my mind, no calling that comes so near to that of the man bent on religious 

 work, great moral missionary work. There is no man who comes so near 

 to that as the man who is trying to educate the farming connuunity, trying 

 to help work out in the best way possible the agricultural intere.sts of any 

 Province or of any State. 



Did you ever consider the im]>ortance of this in its relationshi])? For 

 Instance, here is a man who takes u]i some great mannfactui'ing line of work. 

 He throws his whole mind, soul, and body into it, and he makes. wonderful suc- 

 cess of it. That success results in the accumulation of a large amount of 

 money. Now, that man by the accumulation of that large amount of money 

 is benefiting himself, his family, and perhaps his innnediate associates. He 

 cau not keep his nione.y : of course it must l)e spent ; but to a large extent the 

 benefits of that accumulation are narrowed down to the man and his inmiediate 

 relations. He may pick that up and carry it off to some other i)lace; it is 

 portable ; it is not tied down. But just consider what the agricultural mis- 

 sionary is doing. He is helpii'ig to develop the farmers of a connnunity. He 

 has his hands, so to speak, on the agricultural work of a large area, a large 

 district : he is helping this farmer and the next farmer and so on down the 

 whole line, helping them to improve their farms, their buildings, their style 

 of agriculture, so that gradually they l>ecome more in-osperous. As the farmer 

 becomes more and more prosperous you are, so to speak, tying him more and 



