83 



sometimes not even then. The cause or causes of this reaction from this 

 essential industry sliould be found, if possible, and the remedy applied. 



The hope of lar.!J:er and (luiclcer pecuniary returns than the farm as usually 

 managed affords tenii»ts the farmer's son to seek both in some other business, 

 and a working-day of fewer hours than the farmer's day, a definite time to 

 begin aud quit the day's work, with absolute freedom from work nights and 

 Sundays and prompt payment every week are inducements that tempt labor- 

 ing men away from the farm, and these facts should not be ignored by the 

 farmer when deploring the scarcity of farm help. 



If our institute methods, as now carried on, and the instruction now given, 

 will helj) the farmers to reap greater profits than they have hitherto received, 

 will encourage them to make the farm home and the farm life more attractive 

 and the work less onerous, we are ]>ursuing the right course. But if we are 

 failing to reach these results, even to a limited degree, there is a failure to 

 recognize opportunity and fulfill a responsible obligation. 



Another problem peculiar to the position of institute manager, old and yet 

 always new, is the selection of properly qualified institute conductors and 

 competent speakers. Each i)osition requires a fitness peculiar to it. 



The institute platform has special attractions for the would-be public 

 speaker. The novice, with a few glittering generalities, is everywhere offering 

 his services as institute speaker. But there are other novices who have excel- 

 lent ideas and a measure of knowledge who are diffident. These need encour- 

 aging in order that they may become thoroughly competent for this responsible 

 work. 



I have used the term " selection." Fortunately there are enough profes- 

 sional conductors and speakers available at this period of institute growth. 

 But how and by what methods shall these important positions be filled? 

 Arrangements, organization, attendance may each be all that could be desired, 

 but a misfit here will brhig disaster. A round peg in a square hole or a 

 square peg in a round hole will not answer. The conductor and the speaker 

 should each size up to the requirements as nearly as may be possible. How 

 select? Well, that is your problem, Mr. Institute Manager. If you can have 

 a civil-service examination without being uncivil to the candidate, have it. 

 But there are other ways of deciding. 



AVith all our teaching along other lines, what should we do and what can 

 we do in the way of implanting, increasing, and fixing a high moral standard 

 among our farmers? A standard of character and action founded on the 

 teachings of God's eternal truth and a keen sense of their responsibilities as 

 heads of family and citizens of a great country. Fellow institute workers, let 

 us encourage them to higher ideals and nobler ambitions, both in their pro- 

 fession and in their influence as citizens. With the farmers right and united 

 the country will be safe. 



NEW METHODS. 



One ever new method will be needful, and that is to so arrange the topics 

 from year to year that the institute as an educative organization shall not go 

 so slow that the farmers will precede its teachings in actual practice, and, on 

 the other hand, not press on to new questions or the deeper scientific ones 

 before the farmers are ready to intelligently and fairly apprehend what is 

 presented, else they will become discouraged. In a word, keep just ahead, on 

 the agricultural skirmish line, but not so far as to lose sight of the advance 

 column. Hold to the farmer with one hand and reach out to the lines of 

 progress as they are revealed from year to year by science, study, and practice 

 with the other, and thus bring the two together in the institute. 



