74 



the agricultural collejit^ are valuable accessories of the farmers' institute work? We 

 believe that the true effort which this work creates will make these boys better men. 

 These boys want to be made wiser to-day than they were yesterday, and 1 have a 

 lively faith that observation and leflection, thought and study, are just as essential in 

 the great business of farming and farmers' institute work as in any other pursuit. 

 The purpose of an institute which does not have in mind the striving for higher ideals 

 in youth needs reconstruction. 



There are many ways of getting the boys and girls interested in an institute besides 

 those indicated, such" as getting the boys and girls together during the recess period 

 and having a little class in corn judging, or explaining some of the commercial prod- 

 ucts of the corn plant or the root development of the clover plant or soy bean, a 

 sample of which is easily carried in a sealed can. Encourage some of the boys to 

 bring some live stock to the place of meeting and have an expert there, some person 

 from the agricultural college or a competent stockman. Conduct a class in stock 

 judging. Pigs, sheep, cows, horses, etc., should be taken as object lessons, and the 

 good points and defective points indicated. In conducting a class, or exhibit in judg- 

 ing, the reasons should be given, explanations made, and questions answered on all 

 points thus considered. Questions relative to the most desirable types and good qual- 

 ities of animals can thus be more intelligently answered with the specimens actually 

 before the young people. 



Following such a session, while interest is keen and their entire attention is given, 

 is the time to ask a few questions and drop a few suggestions as regards the agricul- 

 tural college. Make suggestions along the following lines: Why not have the best 

 herd of improved stock? Why not increase the fertility of your land and command 

 your neighbors' respect by having the neatest and tidiest kept farm? Suggest that 

 experience is a dear school; that they are soon to face the problem of self-support. 

 Ask them if they understand how to correct the defects in the soil; to reduce the 

 ravages of insects and plant and animal diseases; how to get rid of undesirable tend- 

 encies in flock and herd. If they wish to learn the secret of a larger success in these 

 and other lines, there is no better place to spend a short time than at the college of 

 agriculture and experiment station where many up-to-date ideas come from. Point 

 out in detail the courses the agricultural college offers to students which are designed 

 to fit them for the business of farming and at the same time to furnish a means of 

 culture. The latch string hangs out, and such an education is within the reach of 

 every boy, provided he wants it and makes up his mind to that end. In this way 

 the mind of the young people can be led up to the most important feature of the 

 institute work. I want to drop this word in passing: There is no interest I know 

 of that is at all comparable with live stock as a means of interesting and educating 

 and entertaining the young people. You all know how it is when you go and buy 

 a pure-bred mare, cow, hog, sheep, how the boys will immediately become inter- 

 ested. They are comparing the animal with that of their neighbors, or the kind they 

 had before, and as the progeny comes along they are anxious to .see it and examine 

 it and decide upon its qualities. They are held; they are interested; there is nothing 

 like it on the farm. 



After all, the greatest live stock, the most valuable live stock, are the people — the 

 boys and girls who live on the farm and for whom these institutes are really con- 

 ducted, for the older ones are "sot" in their ways and must ere long pass from the 

 active stage of life. After all, what makes the "land worth anything is the people 

 who live upon it. This land of ours was not worth anything until there was some 

 kind of people on it — not worth anything. But when we have a great farming pop- 

 ulation of intelligent men and women; now that it is well stocked with people, 

 America is the greatest country in the world. After all, it is the people who make it. 



Ladies and gentlemen, if we were j)rivileged to return to our childhood days would 

 we not, with the knowledge which the years have brought, give a more certain trend 

 to the acts of that period? Yet in this institute work there comes the opportunity 

 to place yourself beside this latter-day child, the farm boy, and make yourself, as it 

 were, a child with him and lead him to that higher plane of which true manhood is 

 the summit. 



In brief, the farmers' institute conducted for boys and girls will develop in these 

 young people manhood and womanhood, will broaden their views, enable them to 

 separate the good from the Ijad, develop in them an inquiring mind, and tend to show 

 them the real privileges of true citizenship. 



These potent influences are factors in directing the lines of the lives of these young 

 people, which are as true as the needle to the pole, and will help the farm boy tx> 

 become a modest, thoughtful, studious, public-spirited man, well fitted to pursue his 

 chosen calling and, if circumstances demand it, to grace the halls of any legislature. 



While the institute worker may be building for a permanent as well as for a profit- 



