FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 117 



measure of prosperitj^ will result, while progress in these lines must 

 inevitably result in moral exaltation. This is peculiarly the field of the 

 local Farmers' Club. 



The State Association of Farmers' Clubs derives its strength from 

 the local Clubs. It is but an instrument for the execution of the col- 

 lective will of the local Club. Commensurate with the growth of local 

 Clubs will be the growth of power in the State Association. 



The lines of effort of the State Association will be determined by the 

 sentiments engendered by local Club work. 



Judging the future by the past, it will be the province of the State 

 Association to interfere in public affairs to the end that their adminis- 

 tration may be in harmony with a loftier conception of official duty. 



Today we are confronted with a lamentable state of affairs in public 

 life. Yet we look hopefully to the future. If the Farmers' Club, local 

 and State, shall rise to an appreciation of their duties and opportunities, 

 fearlessly facing the situation, exerting their power in accordance with 

 their declared principles, the time is not far distant when it will be 

 impossible for men to be exalted to official position who, false to every 

 tradition of manhood, shall betray the trust, and cause our fair State, 

 traduced and disgraced, to be almost a stench in the nostrils of all lovers 

 of good government, and every loyal citizen to be bowed with shame. 

 Will the Farmers' Club rise to the opportunity? 



All human history is but the record of a conflict of ideas. It is the 

 ''trial by battle" w^herein the false must ultimately be destroyed and 

 truth come forth triumphant, fit material for the building of the temple 

 of human progress. 



In this contest of ideas the Farmers' Club finds grandest opportuni- 

 ties. 



If the Farmers' Club holds steadfastly to its avowed purposes, its 

 motto may be changed. Let it be written like this: 



"The purpose of the Farmers' Club is to make the world better." 



And to make the world better means that individual and generic man 

 shall be continually advancing toward that sublime ideal, that exalted 

 position which it was intended he should occupy, and to which the evo- 

 lution of the ages, unfolding ever in beautiful harmony with the Divine 

 plan, will ultimately bring him. 



THE FAEMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



HON. A. C. BIRD, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



The wisest poet philosopher of his age has said, "It is easier to teach 

 twenty what were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to follow 

 your own teaching." One may well remember the implied criticism in 

 these words ere he presumes to speak upon this subject. 



There is a prevalent antipathy among farmers against a theoretical 

 address upon a purely business subject. It is to them, and I will con- 

 fess that I share in the feeling, one of the astonishing and inexplicable 

 phenomena of human life that so many men engaged in other vocations 

 than farming seem possessed with the innate belief that they were born 



