126 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



some philanthropy in the hearts of the men who are carrj'ing them on, 

 are money making enterprises. But in talking this over with a good many 

 people who are interested in educational work going on in this State, this 

 thought has risen, could we not add to the Agricultural College at Ames, 

 not a distinct department, because the work in a small degree is now 

 being done, but could we not add to the Agricultural College a school of 

 correspondence instruction, where the man who cannot go to it, even for 

 the short course, can enter into communication with the teachers at Ames 

 through the medium of the mail and secure the fundamental benefits of 

 scientific training in agriculture with the very minimum of expense. I 

 believe that if we had such a thing it would not be more than six months 

 until we had twenty-five thousand men and women in this State passing 

 through a course of agriculture. It would cost very little. Now I think 

 myself that a part of the expense should be borne by the pupils; I think 

 that is right. But I think the State should equip our institution there to 

 take care of its end of it. Now I do not want you to think for a moment 

 that this is an appeal made by the Agricultural College. It would come 

 from a very worthy source if it did; but this suggestion comes from me. 

 I am no more interested in the Agricultural College at Ames than in the 

 University at Iowa City or the Normal School at Cedar Falls. I would 

 have each institution carry forward the work that is assigned to it with 

 success and honor; and the education of the State so far as agriculture is 

 concerned is committed to the college at Ames. I think we could double 

 its usefulness if it were so arranged that every farmer, every farmer's boy 

 and every farmer's girl in this State could take up a course running over 

 two or three years. I know nothing of the details of such a course of 

 instruction, and when their progress was satisfactory to those who exam- 

 ined their papers from time to time and there was evidence that they had 

 faithfully acquired the information that was necessary, they ought to have 

 a diploma, they ought to have a certificate that they had passed through 

 this course. I believe it would do more than any other one thing to 

 continue this splendid awakening on the part of this State in the study 

 of agriculture. I see no limits to this enterprise. Last night I was talking 

 with a member of the Horticultural Society, our friend Asa Turner, who 

 lives in this county, and, notwithstanding his years, has been a student 

 at Ames; and I heard him telling of the additional interest which his 

 study had given him in life, of additional willingness to remain on the 

 farm. And there is another thing — if there is one tendency I would like 

 to see arrested in this State, it is the tendency to leave the farm, either 

 in the young men or the old men. I do not believe the old men should 

 leave the farm and go to town; they are not as much use to their fellow 

 men as if they stayed on the farm. Anything that you do of the kind 

 that I have suggested to you adds new interest to life, it fastens men more 

 firmly to their farm, to their homes, and I would like this convention or 

 this society to consider this subject. It would not cost much. I know 

 that I have the reputation of being a little extravagant, but I never advised 

 the State of Iowa to expend a dollar that I did not think would be 

 returned to it tenfold over, and the recommendation which I have made 

 for the maintenance of this institution would seem to me has been justi- 



