12-i STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



him a farmer. People often have such a man as a representative of 

 farmers and make fun of him. I could scarcely call him a citizen. We 

 are compelled to work by our surrounding circumstances. To be good 

 citizens we must work. Honesty, fidelity and a truthful discharge of 

 all our duties, both private and public, are absolute requisites to good 

 citizenship. 



"The President has said I had addressed more farmers than any other 

 man in Michigan. I believe I have. But I have also addressed others. 

 T have often addressed ministers in conventions. I. have always advised 

 them to preach shorter sermons. And I believe I may have had some 

 influence, because they certainly do preach shorter sermons than they 

 formerly did. I have often spoken to lawyers, too. I have advised and 

 admonished them repeatedly never to defend a man they knew to be 

 guilty. But I could not have exerted any influence there, as they all do 

 it yet. 



"Go on and be honest, holding your integrity. You owe it to your 

 country and your posterity. I heartily endorse what Dr. Wiley said 

 this afternoon. The farmer who wears out his soil is a sinner. He 

 c-ommits a crime against himself, his country and millions yet unborn. 

 We are bound to conduct our farms so as not to wear them out. We are 

 going in this direction now. 



"In comparing the farmer as a citizen with others, I have no wish 

 to pluck laurels from the brow of any man. But on the whole the aver- 

 age farmer is more honest than other men. This is no particular credit, 

 however, as he does not have to face the temptations that confront men 

 in cities. He lives in communion with nature's law, which teaches hon- 

 esty, integrity, and all other high and noble ideals. We have some dis- 

 advantages. We are in a way dragged down by our surroundings, but 

 as a rule maintain a higher standard of morality than the average. 

 People in towns don't live as close with their families as does the 

 farmer. I was called on a coroner's jury to investigate the suicide of a 

 nineteen-year-old girl. Her father said he got up at six, took an early 

 breakfast and went to work — before the girls got up. When he re- 

 turned he was tired, the family had eaten, perhaps the girls were not at 

 home and he did not see them before he went to bed. He said, 'I'm 

 very little acquainted with my family.' That lesson has grown with me 

 constantly for forty years, and I'll thank God I live on a farm and 

 spend my time with my wife and children, and keep .up that close 

 communion that leads to the- highest life. Michigan has twenty State 

 institutions and I have visited all except the last ones built. Six are 

 educational, purely, and three both educational and charitable. Farm- 

 ers were always well represented except at two. These were reform 

 schools. They never had over three per cent of farmers and usually 

 only about two. They are just as bad by nature, but don't have the 

 opportunity for doing wrong. Our great-hearted philanthropists and 

 large-souled statesmen have constantly worried how to govern the cities 

 until this problem was overshadowed by our war with Spain and later 

 with the body across the Pacific. But did you ever hear of anybody 

 worrying how to govern the people in the country? They govern them- 

 selves. We are at peace and harmony with each other. Perhaps this 

 is partly due to the Farmers' Clubs and the Granges. 



"Prof. Bailev made a mistake when he said the farmers never brought 



