6o MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



pioneers in this part of the State thought they had "corned" the land to 

 death and sold out and left the country. Today under intelligent 

 management and with proper treatment those same old farms are pro- 

 ducing crops of corn that would amaze the old-timers. Let us welcome 

 the day when a more intensive cultivation, intellectually applied will 

 make the corn belt bloom as never before. I have stood on the banks 

 of the Humber river in England, where the soil has been continuously 

 cropped for centuries, and in estimating the tremendous garden crops 

 that were there being produced I could but think of the folly of some 

 of us of the corn belt region of America cherishing the idea that it is 

 necessary, under proper management, to wear out a farm and move on 

 every fifteen years. I believe that American agriculture is" still in its 

 mfancy. I believe that the time will come when we will not only know 

 how to double or treble our annual yields per acre, but also how to care 

 for the fertility of our soil as well ; when we will be as well prepared to 

 utilize the valuable land which we possess as are the inhabitants of 

 the old countries. Such will be accomplished largely I think through 

 interesting the boys and young men of the country in an agricultural 

 education. 



The Institute. — Let me say a word here in favor of the commend- 

 able work now being done by our State Board of Agriculture. The 

 Farmers' Institute and the display car of products are working closer 

 into the confidence of the older farmers than ever before. They have 

 made a deep impression on many of the younger farmers, who are al- 

 ready beginning to take hold. They carry out their educational work 

 in a manner that is readily grasped by the students of the public school, 

 and never fail to say a good word for the work being accomplished by 

 the Agricultural College. 



Recently one of those institute meetings was held for us at Liberal. 

 Missouri. The Liberal schools were dismissed in the afternoon for the 

 occasion, and the interest shown by the students was intense. The young 

 ladies were equally interested in the lectures, especially pleased with 

 the contents of the display car, and many students expressed a desire 

 to, at some time, succeed in attending the Agricultural College, and de- 

 voting themselves in that direction. 



That is what is wanted. A stimulus to the ambition of the youth 

 of the land in an agricultural direction, for let it be understood that a 

 person never achieves anything which they have no ambition for. Tf a 

 man has not an ambition to drive the best team in the county he will 

 never drive it. If he has no ambition to raise the biggest crop of corn 

 in the State he will never raise it. If he has not an ambition to accom- 



