332 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



ED. E. EDWARDS, FREMONT, AT NEWAYGO COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



The urban populations are plainly being revived and augmented by accessions and 

 accretions from the farms. The life of the farm, the character building done on the 

 farm, is steadily being filtered into our national life at almost every turn, and it 

 speaks volumes in praise of the work in this line done on the farm that the effect 

 upon the people of the country at large is so good. Where a large river pours its 

 flood into the ocean and far out to sea the waters of the river are plainly distin- 

 guishable by reason of their purity, I may safely say that the sources of the river 

 are also pure. 



THE FUTURE OF FARMING. 



J. W. MORLEY, MOSSBACK, AT KALKASKA COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



Men prefer to live in cities. That is the way they are built. But, as some are not 

 as fortunately situated as others, some have to be denied the pleasure of living in 

 cities, just as some have to be denied the pleasure of owning French music boxes. 

 Not all men have a right to live in cities. Only those who have the means to main- 

 tain themselves without the aid of public charity, have a right to dwell there. Many 

 times public alms is far more of a curse than a blessing. It takes away that sturdy 

 independence and that solid satisfaction that come from good, hard battling with 

 the problems that confront us in life's pathway. 



But let us take courage from the fact that farm life is irresistible in its attractions 

 to hundreds of thousands of men; and it is to that attractiveness and to their enjoy- 

 ment of farming that we must look to the maintenance of the necessary balance 

 between the city and the country. The delight in seeing things grow and in feeling 

 that we have a hand in their growth is an unselfish and pure enjoyment known to 

 few occupations in city life. The farmer, too, is always buoyed up by hope of bet- 

 ter times — even though it is necessary to do some voting to bring them about. He 

 has an abiding faith in the necessity of his business to the world. To many men of 

 the finest mould, farm life has an irresistible charm. 



GRAINS AND GRASSES. 



D. D. MILLS, SHERMAN, AT MASON COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



But we would have you take a still broader view of the dominion of these prod- 

 \icts. They are not only the chief factors in sustaining animal life, but in sustain- 

 ing the fertility of the soil. If we feed upon them, so does our Mother Earth, from 

 which she receives strength to support her vegetable offspring. The field of well 

 grown tubers makes its profit from the overturned sod beneath; after first serving 

 as food for our stock these go out to fertilize the orchard and create the savory 

 apple and delicious peach. Without these our land would soon become lean and 

 denuded, and its products dwindle away. Our fruit kings and potato lords only hold 

 their dominion in fief from the grasses and grains. They should hasten to bow to 

 the waving clover and doff their hats to the nodding wheat stalks, and together 

 acknowledge with us all, "We are thy grateful subjects." 



