214 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



S. M. Jordan. 



ADDRESS BY S. M. JORDAN. 



(Mr. Jordan is the pioneer county farm adviser and is at the head of the Pettis County (Mo.) 



Bureau of Agriculture.) 



I don't know why it is, but it seems when I come before an 



audience nearly every fellow begins to 

 grin; I don't know why it is unless it is 

 my looks. I am awfully glad, however, 

 that we are not necessarily judged by 

 what we look like, and when I take a 

 survey of this audience I am thoroughly 

 convinced that there are a whole lot of 

 people who should be just as well 

 pleased about it as I am. 



A man reminded me of something 

 today that I don't believe I said, but 

 he said I did; I know I would not 

 answer a farmer that way. It was at 

 a town where I was making one of my 

 talks concerning two ears of corn. One was a very handsome 

 ear and the other almost anything else. I was comparing the 

 ears of corn, with reference to their quality, to hogs, and a man 

 in the audience said, "You can tell a hog's quality by his looks," 

 and I said, "No, not necessarily any more than you can judge of 

 a man's quality by his looks. If you had to judge a man by his 

 looks a lot of you fellows would be in the penitentiary; I don't 

 know where I would be." The world wants you for what you 

 can do rather than what you look like, unless you are in a 

 baby show. 



It is very difficult to attempt to take another man's place, and 

 perhaps since "the dog show" is late, I will have to be first in the 

 performance tonight. Two men were unable to be here — and I 

 am not assuming at all to fill the places that those men could 

 have filled on this occasion. I am in a sense unprepared, but I 

 work in almost any harness and try to do my level best every 

 day and take no offense at playing second fiddle. So they asked 

 me to perform a little while tonight for your entertainment, and 

 possibly for your information, if I can give you anything. 



We have collected here trying to join together the things 

 that a great many people have found out. No man can learn 

 very much in a lifetime, but a great many men in a great many 



