356 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



county fair in the State. In addition, several thousand copies were 

 mailed out to other interested parties. 



Reports were to the effect that in a number of counties the 

 county courts are now aiding the county fairs by making limited 

 appropriations, as the law allows, for agricultural and live-stock 

 premiums. County fairs are more and more becoming educational 

 institutions and wherever this is true there is evidenced a greater 

 willingness on the part of the people to give them the support 

 which they deserve. 



\ 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



(J. Allen Prewitt, Independence, Mo.) 



I greet you all with the fullest hope and the most abiding faith 

 for and in the progress of our cause in 1913. 

 What I shall say shall be brief and to the point. 

 My appeal to you shall be for the union of all the 

 forces and influences that are now working for 

 the advancement and betterment of the agricul- 

 tural interests of the State and Nation. 



Although a lawyer by profession, my heart 

 has always been with the farm, because it was 

 there that I was born and there I received what 

 I now know to be the best that in me is. Than 

 nature, there is no better teacher. To the farm I expect again to 

 return because my sympathy is with the farmer, and to me the 

 highest hope of all the future lies in the rugged honesty and inde- 

 pendence that it takes to make an ideal farmer. The development 

 of agriculture and its allied industries really measures the civiliza- 

 tion of any people. I have said this much in the hope that you will 

 hear me as a farmer and not as a lawyer. 



If I have any criticism for the Missouri farmer, I would say 

 that he has paid too much attention in times past, to the sinister 

 politician (who has too often been a lawyer) and not to the great 

 work of the farmer, both in the field and in the legislative halls, 

 yea, even in the executive office itself. 



What does it matter to the Missouri farmer whether our gover- 

 nor be a handsome Republican, a homely Democrat or noisy Pro- 

 gressive, if he simply looks wise, draws his salary and makes the 

 Chautauqua circuits, and is not wholly, vitally and unmistakably 

 interested in the progress of the State and the development of its 



