120 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



barren fig tree until he had dug about its roots and manured them 

 well, that of us, also, it might then be said, "They shall be like a 

 tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit 

 iii its season; whose leaf also doth not wither and whatsoever they 

 do, shall prosper." 



Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by making such a 

 talk as this — wondering what can be my motive or mental mood. 

 Now, I do not stand before you as the incarnation of calamity, 

 not as a waller of woe, nor am I a charter member of the Chronic 

 Kickers' Club; but neither am I a follower of that creed of the 

 fabled Prometheus who thought to lift the burdens from humanity 

 by planting in the hearts of men false hopes. But I stand before 

 you as the professed follower of a diviner doctrine, of a more cheer- 

 ful creed; and I have tried to preach you a little sermon on my 

 favorite text — "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free." 

 And I leave it to you to say how far I have wandered from my text. 



I have not uttered a single word for the purpose of discourag- 

 ing any farmer, or of making him dissatisfied with his business. 

 I have simply tried to point out to you some of the new problems 

 that we must meet; and great and difficult as these problems may 

 now appear, I look forward to their successful solution with the 

 fullest assurance of hope. Never was the future of American agri- 

 culture brighter with promise than it is today. The resourcefulness 

 and ingenuity of the American people have overcome every ob- 

 stacle; and when we remember how American manufacture with 

 such humble beginnings has, in these few years, leaped to the fore- 

 most rank in all the world, who can measure the possibilities of 

 American agriculture when it is, like manufacture, put upon a 

 profitable basis? I cannot believe that the American people will 

 knowingly do that which will prove their national injury. A peo- 

 ple who have voluntarily imposed upon themselves a tax in the 

 form of a protective tariff" in order that American manufacture may 

 prosper, will not permit the more fundamental business of agri- 

 culture to suff'er. 



No, I am not an apostle of pessimism but rather an avatar of 

 optimism; not a prophet of evil, chanting the doleful jeremiad but 

 rather the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make straight 

 the path." And I believe the time will never come when the farmer 

 will fail in that broader and diviner duty of feeding and clothing 

 the world. Whatever obstacles may arise, they shall be surmount- 

 ed; whatever clouds may cross his skies, they shall be lifted; and 

 there shall be more sunshine than shadow. And the farmer shall 



