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questions as to whether it is better to put in the corn in rows or in hills ; 

 whether it is better to cultivate roots on the level or in drills; whether it is 

 better to sow grains of certain selections or grains of other selections, etc. 

 They become interested in plant-breeding work along those lines which the 

 farmers can take up to advantage for themselves, and so one experiment after 

 another is discussed. AVlien the people, numbering 500 and 600 in a group, ask 

 questions dealing with those things that they meet with in everyday work on 

 the farm, they are in real earnest and are after information that will help them. 



1 have sometimes heard it mentioned that there are some lines of experi- 

 ment station work that are not of as high a class as other lines of station work. 

 E'or instance, the testing of varieties and the testing of methods of cultivation, 

 and that sort of thing. To me, the line of work that is going to do the n*ost good 

 for the people we are working for is the highest class of work we can take up. 

 Scientific problems are of great value, but while going into them we must not 

 forget the men who are working on the farms day after day from morning till 

 night and are meeting questions every hour of the day regarding which they 

 want information, and let us, as institute workers, come in contact with those 

 people and go out with them on the farms ourselves. I have been connected 

 with institute work, perhaps, more than anj' one else at our college, simply 

 because I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it for two reasons. One was that 

 I wanted to keep in touch with the people themselves and to know their needs, 

 and the other was to bring the results of our experiment work before the people. 



Therefore. I have been in touch with the work for the last thirteen years at 

 the various institute meetings. This, in connection with the excursions to the 

 experiment station where they come in numbers varying from 1100 to 3,000 a 

 day throughout the entire month of June, gives an opportunity to come in contact 

 with these people and understand their conditions, and also gives them an oppor- 

 tunity to understand our conditions. You will see that there is cooj^eration 

 running all through beween the college and the station and between the station 

 and the farmers on the little experiment farms all over Ontario. Just think 

 of it — i,000 exiserimenters. What does it mean? Four thousand little .stations 

 all sending out their infiuence, each one being a center of information. Two 

 years ago I asked how many people saw just one of the 35 cooperative experi- 

 ments, and I learned that fully 25.000 people saw this one expei'imeut on one 

 farm or another. That was only one experiment. And we have 35 experiments 

 altogether. You see it gets the people in touch with the idea of experimenting 

 and investigating for themselves. It was mentioned in the paper that coopera- 

 tive work among farmers is largely educational work, but not of much scientific 

 value. Well, supposing it is. Is the experiment station for the people or are 

 the people in existence to build up the station? I believe the stations are 

 established for the benefit of the people, and whatever we can do to help the 

 people to become better farmers is wliat we should do. 



This cooperative work opens up new lines of thought. I have been asked 

 the question, " Well, a man or a woman will write to the college because he or 

 she may want to get something for nothing, may want to get some seeils, simply 

 because they think they can get something for nothing. What do you think of 

 that?" Suppose they do. They are the men and women we want to get hold 

 of. What does it mean? It means that if we can take that man or that woman 

 that asks for that seed because it can be obtained for nothing and we can keep 

 those people in our minds right through and finally get them to think and work 

 along better lines than formerly, we have done one of the greatest works which 

 it is possible to do for those people. 



We try to get the farmers interested in this experiment work, and as soon as 

 we get them to experimenting they do not look upon it as the college experiment, 



