CONVENTION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 4'JT 



which is the effect on men, in giving them higher ideals of life; and 

 these ideals should become the common property of all the people. 



Coming to some of the practical problems of the colleges and stations, 

 attention was called to the conditions in the agricultural communities, 

 the tendency awa}- from the farm, and the fact that man} r a farmer's 

 boy lacks the opportunity for individual initiative so essential for 

 independent positions. It was urged that farm life must not be the 

 refuge of necessity, and that not all farmers' sons are suited to be 

 farmers any more than all lawyers' sons are suited to that profession. 

 The changes in farm life were noted, such as increased cost of machin- 

 ery, the labor problem, and the requirement in most localities not only 

 of more capital but of greater intelligence and native ability. Impov- 

 erished farm land was pointed to as one of the greatest drawbacks to 

 development. This tends to keep down the price of labor, harbors an 

 inferior population, and threatens the most important conditions of 

 rural life. 



The point was made that intelligent operation of the farm is now 

 necessary for any margin of profit. The fallacy that unintelligent 

 men can make successful farmers or satisfactory farm laborers was 

 severely arraigned, and it was urged that a much lower grade of 

 intelligence is required to dig a sewer ditch in the city than a ditch 

 for tile draining on the farm, because farm work "requires men who 

 are equal to their own emergencies and who can assume their own 

 responsibilities." It should be recognized that intelligence on the 

 farm will produce results just as surely as elsewhere; and some mani- 

 festations of the tendency toward more intelligent farming were cited. 



Conceding that the time is past for unintelligent farming in most 

 parts of this country — that farming requires an education, the problem 

 of how to suppty this need was declared to be the problem of agri- 

 cultural education; and here the point was made that the enterprise is 

 usually working under the disadvantage of too little money. It is not 

 generally appreciated that agricultural education must necessarily be 

 a very expensive form of education. "The agricultural college is an 

 expensive thing in itself, because it centralizes all the expensiveness 

 of ignorance under an organization that proposes to remove ignorance 

 and supplant it with intelligence and skill." The need of ample funds 

 for this branch of education was enlarged upon, and it was pointed 

 out that the limitations of the colleges have been a very serious handi- 

 cap to the development of agricultural education in this country. 



Coming to elementary instruction, a strong plea was made for the 

 introduction of agriculture in the rural schools, and the duty devolving 

 upon the agricultural colleges of furnishing the inspiration and the 

 initiative for this movement was pointed out. Agriculture differs from 

 other industries in that it will not take care of itself, like banking or 

 engineering, and hence a propaganda must be carried on for it. An 



