92 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Now, fellow farmers, to you not alone is due this great uplift. 

 We owe it to the men in our educational institutions, in our col- 

 leges of agriculture, all over this broad land, that they have seen 

 fit to put out their hands to us by experimental work, by persuasion 

 and kindly reasoning to look up to better things, and they have 

 helped to develop the country as it has never before been developed. 

 They have helped to make the home brighter. I am proud to do 

 them honor. Don't you see how humble I am? If I were called 

 upon to name some of the heroes who ought to be and will be 

 enrolled on history's page, I would call the names of those who 

 have been working for years and years, and I would go back to 

 Mendel, Burbank and others. 



The town would not amount to anything if it were not for the 

 farmers. No wonder they are bowing to us in humility tonight. 

 Prof. Eckles told me a short time ago of a work that he has done 

 here at this College of Agriculture, developing the power of pre- 

 potency and the value of an animal at the head of a dairy herd. 

 Others in other departments are doing work of similar importance. 

 And do you know, my friends, that when Dr. Hill paid the farmers 

 his tribute and said what the farmers would do, I was glad that I 

 have been a farmer, trying to do things, for several years. Once 

 or twice I have felt I was losing a little prestige by it. A short 

 time ago I was making a speech in a southern county, and during 

 a short interruption in my talk a grizzled farmer walked up to the 

 platform, stuck out his hand, which I gladly accepted, and as we 

 shook hands he said, "Doctor, how are you?" I was hardly able 

 to talk to them any more, fearing they would lose confidence in me. 



I plead with you tonight to carry the message to your neigh- 

 bors and friends ; impress them with the truths that are being de- 

 veloped for their cause and ours. Let us with one accord stretch 

 out our hands to our friends everywhere and point them to the 

 fact that they can have information at no cost to themselves, no 

 dishonor to themselves, no disgrace to themselves, just upon appli- 

 cation. If they will but apply to the University they can have 

 truths that will cost them nothing and cause them to look higher 

 on their own occupation. We have been too prone to believe our- 

 selves mere "clodhoppers," but in this era of instruction or educa- 

 tion, in this uplift of the farmers, let us look at ourselves as practi- 

 cal scientists upon whose shoulders the feeding of the multitude 

 rests. Let us assume this great responsibility and carry it with 

 our heads uplifted. Let us apply in our own homes the results of the 



