FARMERS' INSTITUTES. I'^l 



give pleasure to those around us. Let us teach ourselves to appreciate all the 

 poetry pulsing and throbbing through this great, grand world of ours. 



Our lives should be in harmony with nature, to see its beauties. We thank God 

 for life, food and clothing. Do we ever thank him for our surroundings? 



I was driving along Tawas Bay, watching the waves wash upon the beach and 

 break and fall back, and I thought how beautiful. Yet we stand here and human 

 life surges around us, beautiful thoughts, beautiful deeds, the very poetry of life 

 flowing and breaking around us, and we all unconscious of their beauty. Oh, if 

 only the scales might fall from our eyes, that we might take into our hearts and 

 lives all the beauties of life. 



PRIVILEGES OP THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



STEWART GORTON, Luzerne, at OSCODA COUNTY, Institute, Mlo. 



The American farmer has no just appreciation of the dignity of his occupation, 

 of its importance, or of the superior advantages he enjoys. These conditions are 

 best elucidated by comparison with the condition of farmers in other countries 

 and by comparison of farming with other occupations. 



Agriculture is the one occupation without which the existence of the human race 

 would be impossible. 



"The hand that holds the plow feeds the world." The first of all humaa 

 necessities is food and clothing. The materials for these are furnished by the 

 farmer. Farming is the foundation on which the whole superstructure of human 

 society and achievement is built, and without wMch, the existence of the human 

 race, with its achievements in the arts and sciences, religion, law, government, 

 music, painting, social culture, and all that goes to make up the sum of human 

 happiness, could not be. 



The American farmer occupies the vantage ground amongst all the farmers of the 

 world. He is the most refined and intelligent; he is the best educated; he is the 

 best liver; he dresses the best; he lives in the best houses and maintains the best 

 homes; he is the best and most prosperous and progressive farmei^ in the whole 

 world. Still he has much to learn about his occupation. The science of agriculture 

 is in its infancy. The possibility of the earth's productiveness is comparatively 

 unknown. 



A disposition to acknowledge our ignorance is, perhaps, one of our greatest 

 needs; for it must be conceded that we American farmers, with all our other having, 

 have plenty of egotism. Occasionally in our lucid intervals we own up to ourselves 

 that we don't know quite everything, and that "Everybody knows more than any- 

 body." 



Right here, and when we are in this frame of mind, comes in the value of our 

 Farmers' Institutes. Men who have spent the most of their lives in a particular 

 branch of farming, and by long years of experience in all the details of that par- 

 ticular branch have become experts, are sent here to give us the benefit of their 

 superior knowledge. All this varied and valuable knowledge is made available 

 to us through the instrumentality of the Institute. One of the particular ad- 

 vantages enjoyed by the American farmer is facility of transportation. The nearer 

 the producer is to the consumer, or the less it costs to put his products in the 

 market, the better are his net prices. Railroads have brought the producer and 

 consumer very near together; enhancing the price to the producer and reducing it 

 to the consumer. 



We are sometirpes inclined to find fault with freight and passenger rates on 

 railroads; to say that railroads are not paying their just proportion of tax; to say 

 that thej^ are getting rich out of the farmers and other shippers; all of which may 

 be true; but it would be a sad day for the farmer if our 186,000 miles of railroads 

 were to go out of business. While our railroads may or may not be charging 

 exorbitant rates, never in the world s history was farm produce moved as cheaply 

 and expeditiously as today, and in no country as cheaply as in America. 



The average freight rates are now about seven-tenths of a cent for each ton car- 

 ried a mile. In 1867 the rates were three times that amount. The average rate for 

 passengers during 1898 was about two cents per mile. Both freight and passenger 

 tariffs are higher in every other country; and America has the best and safest 

 service in the world. During the past year our roads have carried .550,000,000 



