19 



them want to make the money out of them. 1 do not imaj^ine that the people who 

 consume these crops jjet any more out of it than the people who jirow the crops. 

 The ditHculty is with the fellows who want to intervene. 



(ientleineii, 1 make you heartily welcome here to the city of Washinjrton. This is 

 the political center of our country; it is the scientific centi-r of our country; it is rap- 

 idly l)ecoining the social center o"f our country. It is frrowinj; rapidly. We Ameri- 

 caii people liave a ^'ood deal of pride in it. 1 might say, also, that this is becoming 

 the great convention city. 



I hope you wiU enjoy your visit here and take away pleasant recollections, and if 

 there is aiivthiiig we can do for you over in the Department to further your work, all 

 you have to ilo is to call upon us. 



F. H. Hall, of Illinois, delivered the following— 



Kei'i.v to Addukss ok the Seckei'arv oi' Agricitlture. 



We appreciate, surely, the words of welcome that have come to us from the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture. We expected it. It is on the progrannne. He is our Secretary 

 and we are his agents. In a sense we are members of his otlicial family. He wel- 

 comes us to Washington, and we welcome him to this meeting. We are especially 

 pleased that he has given us a clearer idea than jjcrhaps some of us have had before 

 of the work of his Department. We know now, what some of us believed before, 

 that the source of life of the farmers' institute is not the agricultural college, and 

 surely not the college of literature and liberal arts, and it is not the connnon schools; 

 it is the Department of Agriculture and the experiment station. There never were 

 such farmers' institutes as we have to-day until afti'r the Hatch bill passed Congress 

 in 1SS7. That was the beginning of these better tilings. 



The old-fashioiied farmers' institute in which farmers met and exchanged opinions 

 iiiav have had some life, but it is not to be comi)ared with the institute of to-day in 

 which we attempt to bring the farmer himself into touch with the exjieriment sta- 

 tions and the Department of Agriculture. President Roosevelt said, and the Secretary 

 has said the same; thing here to-day, that nearly one-half the people in this country 

 are devoting their energies to producing things from the soil. And surely it is high 

 time that we devote some thought to the sjiecial education of that portion of our 

 poinilation. President Roo.sevelt says, al.so, that the Department of Agriculture is a 

 great educational institution. Do the i)eople over the country know tliis? Do they 

 all of them know it, or many of them know it? The Deiiartment of Agriculture is a 

 great educational institution with a faculty made up of more than two thousand sj)ecial- 

 ists, and expending millions of dollars a year to lind out things for the farmers, and 

 not one farmer in a hundred is in touch with that work. The primary work of the 

 Department of Agriculture, as it is now organized under the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 is discovery and investigation, and the secondary function of the l)e|)artment of Agri- 

 culture is dissemination; and I have heard Profe.ssor Hamilton say that dissemination 

 does not keep pace with the discovery. We are those who are engaged in dissemina- 

 tion. That is our special work. I have heard Professor Hamilton say that the scientific 

 agricultural knowledge that we now have is, as it were, a great reservoir full to over- 

 flowing, with pipes leading thereto that are pouring in an additional mass of knowl- 

 edge constantly, but the mains from which have scarcely been laid. It is our busi- 

 ness to help lay the mains. It is our business to encourage the sentiment that will 

 get the right of way to lay the mains. It is our business to lay also the laterals into 

 every school and home in" the country. President Creel man said once that the farm- 

 ers' institute has done more to help the farmers of the United States and Canada 

 during the last ten years than any other agency. I believe it to be true. How has 

 it done it? Simply by bringing the farmers to some small extent into touch with the 

 experiment stations and with the Department of Agriculture. That is the way the 

 work is done. It is done l)y creating a sentiment that would teach us and educate 

 us all along the line to do what people never thought of doing before. What has it 

 done in my own State of Illinois? It has created a sentiment that made it possible 

 to get a legislative appropriation of $150,000 to erect a building in which to do our 

 work. It has created a sentiment that makes it possil)le to appropriate every year 

 $25,000 for the study of our soil, $25,000 for the study of beef production, $15,000 for 

 the study of horticulture, $15,000 for the'stu<ly of dairying, and $15,000 for the study 

 of growing corn, wheat, oats, and clover. The members of this association are peo- 

 ple who have been connected with this for a longer time than I have, but anybody 

 who will look at this matter will find that the farmers' institutes have made the 

 sentiment which has made all this possible. 



That is not all. We are making a sentiment that will make consolidated schools 

 possible. AVe are making a sentiment that will t-arry elementary agricultural science 



