192 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



good men in America tog:ether and if they are not interested in this 

 work, it will be useless. When the University asks for a law building 

 or a medical building, every lawyer or doctor is behind that petition ; but 

 it is a pretty hard matter — notwithstanding the farmers are interested 

 and want to see it done, it is a pretty hard matter to get the farmers or- 

 ganized to ask for it. I am satisfied that there is an opportunity now for 

 the live stock men of this State to secure some recognition and there is 

 no other thing that will be so important for the live stock interests of this 

 State as to have good, representative herds of animals at our Agricultural 

 College. The logical conclusion of the whole course is the use of pure 

 bred animals and the annihilation of the scrub, and if we cannot have 

 good specimens of improved breeds, to focus that instruction, to apply 

 that instruction, then much of our teaching goes for naught. 



I am proud, very proud of the fact that at the present time there 

 are more men taking animal husbandry in the Agricultural College — 

 twice as many taking animal husbandry and stock judging than in any 

 other technical department in the Institution, notwithstanding the fact 

 that we have to go to our neighbors — have to take the boys on the train 

 to find animals to judge. We have no beef animals to speak of, nor sheep, 

 nor hogs, but we get the animals to judge by taking the boys on the 

 train to a neighboring farm. That is a waste of time and the boys say : 

 "Why can't we have material here to work on as they do in Iowa, Mich- 

 igan, Wisconsin or Illinois ?" 



I am ashamed to tell you this thing. It is nobody's fault unless that 

 of the breeders here today and those not here, but this is a fact. Mr. 

 Ellis has told you that Missouri is the leading State in the development of 

 pure bred live stock today, which is probably true. Notwithstanding that 

 fact, the equipment in pure bred live stock at the Agricultural College is 

 less than seventeen other states in the United States. We are first in the 

 production of pure bred live stock and seventeenth in the equipment of 

 the Agricultural College for instruction in animal husbandry. I leave 

 it to you if, as a matter of State pride, it is not worth while for us to 

 hustle around a little and change that. 



We have short courses held every winter at the college. This year 

 we divided the short courses into four and we have now a special course 

 in horticulture, in dairying, in soils and crops, and animal husbandry. 

 Now this year forty students have come to take that work. Thirty of 

 them are taking animal husbandry and stock judging out of the forty. 

 One of these courses gets thirty-four out of the forty students, the course 

 in animal husbandry. They are there, what shall we do with them? 

 I am doing the best I can. I am getting animals in and giving the best 



