FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 57 



who inherited a |5,000 farm and lost it all in three years' time, I think 

 only of the soft iron and not of the shaping- of the knife. The converse, 

 also, is true. The excellence of the steel and its capability to cut with only 

 very crude shaping argues nothing against its greater usefulness if 

 ground and sharpened and polished and set in a suitable handle. 



OUR STUDENTS. 



Let us consider for a moment the character of our material. In Europe 

 the question of agricultural education is one either of manual skill and 

 rule-of -thumb methods for peasants who are set to given tasks by those in 

 authority over them, and whose outlook is intentionally confined by the 

 narrow limits of caste; or to scientific training in the direction and man- 

 agement of large estates either as landlords or as stewards. With us 

 the material differs from them by all the width of heaven. First of all, 

 the boy to be educated is a citizen, the peer of any other man ; his outlook 

 is not confined, but he has a world of opportunity before him. He will 

 serve no master but himself, and the interests he has to subserve are his 

 own and those of his colleagues. He generally is the son of a small 

 farmer owning a farm of from forty to three or four hundred acres 

 reclaimed probably by the farmer himself from wild nature. The func- 

 tion of an agricultural college is to make of such material men self- 

 poised, self-governed, characterful ; citizens, patriotic, intelligent, unself- 

 ish, faithful to the call of duty; farmers keen to observe, shrewd to apply 

 inductions, familiar with the laws and forces of earth, and air, and sky, 

 harnessing them and making of them slaves; ready with sliill of hand and 

 eye for all the varied duties and exigencies of farm life; farmers who, like 

 manufacturers, produce at the very lowest cost with least waste and 

 smallest wear-and-tear on machinery, and like merchants, sell at the 

 highest market price, shrewdly look to the interests of their own class, 

 guard it against unfair legislation, and stand for it against the encroach- 

 ments of other classes. 



Let us make no mistake here. No matter who says otherwise, the 

 foremost task for the teacher in the presence of this young scion of our 

 nobility, bearing the noblest name the heavens have yet heard — this free 

 born American, the foremost and all-important task here is, I say, to 

 make o5 him a man — a citizen. The proud old Roman's "civis Romanus 

 sum" is pitiful beggary compared with the glorious birthright of this boy 

 of today who can say "I am an American." But the dignity and honor 

 of this title carries with it tremendous responsibility. He is to govern 

 himself, he is to govern others. He must be prepared for his duties. At 

 your peril put any other duty before this. I say shame on those who 

 have reviled the agricultural college, because, taking immature, 

 unformed boys and girls from the district schools and proposing to edu- 

 cate them for their duties in life as farmers, it has seen this as the first 

 duty, has enlarged its curriculum so as to make of them men and not mere 

 European beasts of burden skilled as the mere plow-horse is skilled, has 

 made their work head-work, as well as hand-work, has shown them 

 God's image in nature and not the mere impress of the dollar on earth 

 and air and sky. 

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